I kept the alarm, but still woke up 10 minutes late, to watch
the Presidential debates from the other end of the Atlantic.
I tweeted, made some observations and here is a television
viewer’s take on one of the the most watched debates in the world .
90 minutes. On stage, behind the podium, in front of the
audience and the moderator. Scrutiny is an understatement.
90-minutes. Millions watching and hyper analysing every word,
gesture and expression.
90 minutes. No commercial breaks. No camera cuts. Just a split
screen, zoomed on to the made up faces.
The preparation and homework that must have gone in is
unimaginable. After all, the stakes are tied to the most powerful job in the
world.
Expression. Eye contact. Gestures. Tone. Pitch. Blink. Flicker.
Cough. Sip. Sniffle.
Yeah, the briefing documents must have had notes running into
pages for each item.
One almost felt sorry for them. Here we were, perched on the sofa, with tea and an array of sandwiches, looking forward to 90-minutes of undiluted entertainment.
A chance to play God. And an endless investigation of the key
issues.
In addition to no commercial breaks, there were no bio breaks
either. They must have been off water, at least two hours before getting on
stage.
Still, Donald sipped. And the trolls went berserk with his
drinking.
Then the face that needed to be arranged exactly in the manner the
campaign managers had told them to.
What to show? How to hide? There’s no place to go, when you are
in the limelight.
Smile! Hillary did plenty of that, poor woman, giving in to the
criticism that she doesn’t.
Don’t smirk or shake your head. But Trump went ahead and did
just that after 15 minutes of polished restraint. His campaign manager must
have sent a text message to his colleague – smh.
He sniffled a bit too and got written about it. Wondering how
that comes in the way of Presidency though…
In addition to sniffling, was there shuffling? Who could tell?
The podium covered it well. Thank God! You can’t be seen shuffling if you are
running for the President’s office.
Don’t cough. You're allowed to choke, preferably on a pretzel, and after you become President. But don’t cough. If you cough, you will be
written off. She didn’t.
But she did her famous shoulder shimmy. Just once. And the
trolls have gone to town with the now famous shimmy GIF.
What to wear? Bright? Sober? Pleasant? Feminine? Human?
Hillary pulled off the bright red jacket brilliantly, along with
the expertly coiffured hair.
Just how many hours were spent selecting the colour and cut? How
much analysis and psychological connections of subliminal derivations of colour
must have been done!
Looks like it worked. She looked sensational. And Trump saw Red.
That explains why he interrupted Hillary 25 times in 26 minutes.
The carefully selected blue silk tie stood out pretty well
against Trump’s crisp white shirt. It seemed to have a calming effect on
Hillary.
She won this round, in my estimate. Not hands down. Or not
because she was brilliant. Mostly, because Trump was being himself. A brat.
