To continue our review of Trumps performance in the First of the Presedential debates let us look at what is most likely his grievous  error.  His constant interrupting of Hillary when she said something either didn’t like or disagreed with.  This damaged him in two very fundamental ways.  First many many women really really dislike being interrupted by a man when they are talking. Secondly they way Trump intercepted and what he often said sound too much like whining.

Interupting your opponent in a debat can be a very effective tactic but it must NOT be over used. It has to be used properly in content, voice, and timing or it will backfire on the user.  Momma always advised to only use it if your opponent  has acted (said) something  so off the wall and out of there that you can nail them to the wall.  She also said this didn’t happen very often.  In Trumps case he used to often and poorly and at the wrong target.   Trump needed to pay more attention to his demographics in this election.  He is weak in the women’s vote and it behooves him to not increase his negative subliminals in that voting block.  Unfortunately that is exactly what he did.  Every women I’ve ever heard talk about this says that being interrupted by a man when they are talking really ticks them off. This goes for women who are in positions of authority and well as women who are not.  It seems to cover the entire spectrum.  An what does this mean?  If your in a debate with a woman you had be very careful how you interrupt them as you are already on the wrong foot with half of your audience.

The way Trump went about interupting Hillary went totally over board.  It went so far that even men started to think he was being rude and bulling.  Just imagine what the women watching we thinking.  My guess is they thought Trump was saying something like “Sit down and shut up and let the men do the talking.”  Even worse he did it so badly he did not come off as intimidating.  Not one bit.  An that is where we come to the second point….whining.

Trump interrupted so often and so badly he turned in th a whine, not a bulling dominator.  This will have a very negative effect, subliminally, on those male voters who like him because he is so dominating manly man.  If there is anything that will get this kind of voter to turn on Trump is for them to think that Trump is not as tough as he says he is. If they start thinking he is not as strong as they want him to be they’ll start looking for some other strongman to support.  This is always the problem strongmen have to deal with.  Look weak and if your lucky your support we desert you and if your unlucky they turn on you.

Trump knows he did badly in the debate.  You just have to look at him and his people as they left the venue, it was all over their faces and in their body language.  I imagine Trump is not only worried about his political position but also his business position.  You can bet Trump has more than just a few people out there who would just love to be the one to take him down.

Before I start, let me state right here I have little training, formal or otherwise in debate.  What I do have is this…My mother, known as “ED” by all her students and ‘kids’ used to coach speech in the 50’s and 60’s and I picked up quite alot watching.  She also trained me when I took up an interest in Retoric in high school and collage.  Finally we used to watch the Presidental debates, togeather when we could, and apart when we couldn’t and later critique the participants later.  We did not, really, go into the political points but just talked about how well each made their points and defended their positions.  I still do this even though she no longer can.

OK, then…Lets get started:

I’m scoring last nights debate as a clear TKO for Hillary.  Trump did have one decent round but after that Hillary had it all.  What follows is what I think happened to Trump and why.

First and Formost is that he did not do a single moot debate before the actual debate.  This is the sign of a rank amiture.  Trump did well in the mass scumes that were the GOP debates but he never had a real one-on-one debate then and it showed last night.  Last night was a formal debate and as anyone who has participated in a formal debat will tell you, they are like no other debate.  They are both physically and mentally tiring, even short ones, which last night wasn’t.  Most of what happened to Trump can be traced back, in part or whole, to not rehursing his debate style.

To support this I would like to point out the following things Trump did that could have easily been corrected with just one or two rehursals.  He was NOT ready for the 90 minutes of split screen.  Nor was he ready for just how devastating being ‘Fact Checked’ in real-time could be.

Trump was not ready for 90 sold minutes of close-up camera time.  Yes he has many many hours of time in front of the camera but most of that time the camera could and was subject to being stoped and the shots edited for later showing.  This was Live and Unedited.  Every facial response was recorded for all time.  Every little side comment goes out for all to see.  As I do not know Trump personally and can not say this is true or not but  fear that Trump is one of those people who’s relaxed facial expression is what Momma used to call ‘The Frown’.  It actually is more of a scowl and too many unfortunates have it.  It can be trained out someone, but first you must know you have it and this means you have to have someone tell you you have it.

All thru the debate, when ever Trump was listening to either Hillary, or the Moderator he would fall into, what can charitablely be call a scowl of concentration.  None the less it was scowl.  Before anyone jumps in, yes Hillary scowled too.  But she also had many more other facial responses.  Also her default expression seems to be what Momma used to call “Yes, I’m Listening” and when she did it, it was the height of neutrality and non-commitment.  Any practiced diplomat, or poker player, learns how to do this early on.

This has gone on long enough so I shall post this know and pick up later.