The first debate

It is hard to think of a more unedifying spectacle than the first US presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Here was an opportunity for the next leader of a global superpower to present themselves, not only to the American people, but to the world and explain how they would handle the responsibility of being the ‘most powerful person in the world’. What we got was a typical Trump display where he fat-shamed a beauty pageant winner, defended his racist campaign casting doubt on Barack Obama’s place of birth and once again nonchalantly advocated for war crimes by saying he would take all the oil when invading Middle Eastern countries. The net effect of Trump’s rambling, condescending performance was to make Hillary Clinton, who as senator and then Secretary of State advocated war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and Libya, come off as dovish and reasonable.

The first debate was a depressing reminder that the rest of the world barely figures in US thinking and exists only to browbeat the other candidate, as Clinton did when she repeatedly attacked Trump for his fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here is where Trump so often goes wrong. He is the one unique presidential candidate in recent US history who is not beholden to the hawkish foreign policy establishment. He could have explained that Russia need not be seen as the enemy and that pursuing better ties with the country would be in everyone’s interests. Instead he latches on to Putin’s dictatorial tendencies as a sign of strength. Trump also spent much of the time on the defensive about his supposed opposition to the Iraq war of which, Clinton correctly pointed out, there is no evidence. Incredibly, Trump did not respond by saying that Clinton actually voted to invade Iraq while he was only a reality TV star at the time. The biggest tragedy of this debased US presidential campaign is that Trump comes off as so unhinged that Clinton’s war-mongering goes unquestioned. Her plan for dealing with the Islamic State is to continue bombing targets in Syria and Iraq. Trump had the opportunity to criticise her for continuing with Obama’s failed and destructive policy; he settled on lashing out at her for publicly revealing her intentions and said his plan for defeating Isis would be kept secret. Other than Russia and the Islamic State, global issues barely merited a mention in the debate. Afterwards, the Afghan Taliban released a statement saying they were disappointed Afghanistan didn’t come up in the debate. This may be the only occasion on which even the Taliban are correct.