calimary
calimary's Journal"Commanding" is a GREAT word for it.
That's exactly what she was. Poised. Strong. Vibrant. Composed. Confident. Knowledgeable. Prepared. Masterful. Bold. Gutsy. Commanding.
Her demeanor said all kinds of good things and telegraphed massive positive cues. Especially when her opponent behaved exactly as his "Art of the Deal" ghostwriter Tony Schwartz complained about him - having spent months in close scrutiny of Trump for the purposes of writing his book for him: "like a nine-year-old boy with ADHD." Btw - as a personal note, I happen to have had one of those - those nine-year-old boys with ADHD. My son was diagnosed with that. He's 24 now and has it much more together now. But back then, he was a fidgety, sniffing, waving, flapping, spinning, head-bobbing, nervous-tic-ridden kid. We used to call him the Tasmanian Devil. My husband even made me up a screen-saver that wiped around my computer screen with a quote of mine that I used with our son ALL THE TIME: "NO Flapping!"
She was PREPARED. Reminded me of when I was a freshman in college, wanting to get involved in the campus radio station. To do that, back then, and go on the air and have your own show, you had to have an FCC 3rd-Class license with a broadcast endorsement - the "element nine." To acquire one of those you had to take a test at the FCC offices in downtown L.A. For me, that meant doing what I always did before a test. Study my ass off! Spent all night pouring over that FCC license book, which was thick and mostly written in Romulan (or might as well have been - VERY complex and math-based). The freshman boys who also wanted to join the radio station and get their own show just shrugged and figured they'd ace it, and none of them studied. I treated it as any other test. You study for the test, okay?
And guess how it turned out? I passed. None of the guys did. They didn't take it seriously and they blew off studying for it. Didn't think they'd need to. So I thus earned one of the rare open timeslots, and was off to the races, and they had to wait til the next quarter, when they could go take the test again and try again. Many of 'em lost interest and disappeared. Meanwhile, I was rockin' every Wednesday morning, signing on the station, following the rules I'd studied, all legal, my little FCC license with the element nine on it authorizing me to touch and operate all the equipment and turn on the transmitter and all that stuff you had to be licensed by the FCC to do.
A test is coming? You damn well prepare for it! For Pete's Sake! You study! You make notes and review them over and over again. You stay up all night if you have to. You GET READY for it and take it seriously. And he clearly didn't do either one. Hillary did. Probably because she takes all this seriously. Which, I think, when it all comes right down to it, is what we all really want and need in a President, 'eh?
I think this is NOT something where you just "wing it." I remember when George HW Bush was running for a second term. He was asked, at one point, about readiness and what HE would be equipped to handle. And he responded vaguely and rather casually - "whatever comes up." WTF is that? "Whatever comes up"? You don't have specifics? You don't have ideas? You don't have plans and approaches thought out already? All this stuff a President has to deal with and you're just swatting it in the air like some wandering fly? Much was made of that, as I recall. And it became one of many reasons why Bill Clinton was able to make him a one-term President.
That IS very smart.
Strategically and psychologically - as well as physically, too, getting her body conditioned to doing combat at that hour. VERY smart. VERY brainy.
And I want those brains in the White House. We all NEED those brains in the White House!
YEP. That's exactly what it is.
Every time I've been in a situation where men and women were together in offices, in conferences, in social-but-still-business-related gatherings - wearing red was (and is) a STATEMENT. It's a look-at-me color for sure. Mythologically it's the color of Mars, the god of war. She suited up for battle, psychologically as well as physically. She looked GREAT.
Red is a good color on her. Actually, several bright colors look good on her. But wearing red is definitely making a statement. It brought out the roses in her cheeks and flattered, made her look strong and vibrant and commanding. Made her look like a business woman, an executive woman, a CEO. She dresses like a CEO.
Red's been a political statement color since reagan. Nancy liked red. Her choice of new White House china had red borders on all the plates and cups and other pieces. She wore red a lot, to the point where it was referred to as "Reagan Red." There was this reactive thing that took hold in the press corps - and it was openly acknowledged, too. Women reporters covering the White House wore red because they knew it would draw his eye, and he'd be more likely to call on them in White House news conferences. It does make you stand out.
Also, I think it might have been a VERY subtle reach-out to "soft" GOP voters. Red is the GOP's color.
OUCH!
Yeah, that IS what's called business. Being a predator and an opportunist, as shrewd as you can be regarding adding the maximum amount of money into your column while AVOIDING having to pay out the maximum amount of money. More in than out. Profit over loss. GOOD business is when you show profit over loss - earned with integrity and honesty and by NOT cheating people or stiffing employees and contractors and subcontractors.
All those little-guy working people and small-business people (many of whom, bewilderingly, support him) are the VERY folks he preys upon and tries to cheat. Why that demographic is stronger for him - I will NEVER understand. If they haven't been stiffed by him, it's simply because they haven't been stiffed by him YET.
LOVE it!
She was so commanding - impressive as hell! As for him - uh - forget it! He was ridiculous. This guy thinks he's going to win - and carry out - the Presidency just on the sheer force of his personality. For a guy who's spent so much time on prime time TV shows, he sure isn't ready for THIS kind of prime time.
Yes. That's one device. And Welcome to DU, GopherGal!
You put your hand at their back, as though you are The Host, The Presider, The First-Among-Equals. It's a device.
It's the only way he could pretend he was Mr. Bigly.
Whoa! John Podesta - just speculating with Chris Matthews that Trump may not do the other two debates?! Whoa!
Watching him, and certainly the side-by-side comparison of him next to her
I flashed on what Tony Schwartz, the REAL writer of "The Art of the Deal," said weeks ago about Trump - that he had "the attention span of a gnat," "an attention span of three seconds," and even more vividly, "the attention span of a nine-year-old boy with ADHD." And MAN, that last one really held, tonight. Watching how poised she was, how adult, how composed, strong, in total command, and this dude over there was fidgeting, mugging, sniffing, grimacing throughout, it was so obvious. There was NO QUESTION which one of them was the adult in the room. They were on totally different planets. Rachel Maddow talked about how "he never stopped moving." Eugene Robinson talked about the contrast in temperament, how you wouldn't find much that was reassuring in having watched Trump. Quite the opposite as you watched Hillary Clinton.
Steve Schmidt made several references to Trump "running out of gas." "Babbling." "Incoherence." "Jibberish." Sheesh.
I noticed that, too. Thought it was significant.
Hillary went immediately to the edge of the stage to greet or acknowledge or extend a hand to the small crowd that immediately started building in front of the stage where she was approaching. And there was Bill Clinton, bending way over to shake hands and connect with people a few steps away. And Chelsea, and her husband. Donald Trump huddled with his latest wife and kids and then the group of them exited stage left, looked like. What struck me about that was - surrounded by his extended family up onstage closer to the podiums rather than the edge where the throng of people gathered - I wondered if he did that because he only wanted to hear from people who would tell him how great he did. The Clinton contingent, on the other hand, made a bee-line straight for the audience. They weren't afraid to face the crowd, based on the job she just did.
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