I hate to quote the Insult Comedian approvingly but the Town Hall debate was “very low energy.” Btw, I’d like to see him go a few days without using the words very or so. He uses them so very much. The events before the debate were so emotionally charged that the session itself felt flat. And that’s okay because my candidate will win the battle of the fact checkers that always follows these debates.

Trump looked angry and sniffled even more than at the Humbling in Hofstra. His energy level went up at about the 40 minute mark. I guess that’s when the coke kicked in. Did I say that? Yeah, I’m channeling Doctor/Governor Dean, which is not a bad thing. Sniff, sniff.

Hillary looked tired but she mopped the floor with the moron several times. She didn’t quite have the elan she had in the first debate but she scored lots of points; and never once threatened to throw Trump through the wormhole into the gamma quadrant. End of Deep Space 9 reference.

I thought Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz kicked ass. They kept the debate moving and didn’t let Trump run over them. The audience questions were sort of meh but what’s not to like about a guy named Ken Bone? It reminded me of Bringing Up Baby the screwball comedy wherein Cary Grant had to answer to Mr. Bone for reasons to do with the zany plot. Donald Trump is no Cary Grant. He’s not even Lou Grant. He’s a 2…

The action before the debate was dispiriting with Trump dragging out Bill Clinton’s bigly discredited accusers. Paula Jones settled her specious case with Bill Clinton. I wonder if appearing at that noxious presser violates the settlement? In the end, it doesn’t matter. The presser was a terrible idea that will blow up in Trump’s face: only elderly Clinton haters and political junkies had any idea what was happening. It’s a sign that Bannon, Bossie, and Stone are running this freak show.

The Insult Comedian has abandoned any pretext of reaching out to undecided voters. He’s going hard for his base of racist, ignorant, assholes. There are too many of them in the country for my taste but not enough to win the election.  His ceiling is looking more and more like 38-40%. He’s toast, especially since he and his critics are blowing up the Republican party a month before the election. There’s no time to recover. Kaboom.

The weirdest thing about the debate was the spectacle of the fake billionaire shuffling about the stage, striking Mussolini poses. It looked ridiculous. It reminded me of this story I told the day of the first debate:

[Jane Goodall’s] story reminds me of a male chimp at the San Francisco Zoo when I was a kid. His dominance stunt was masturbating into a burlap sack and throwing it at all and sundry. On one memorable day, he threw it at the crowd and, to my mother’s horror, 5-year-old-me caught it. I wish I could say that I put on a vigorous and imaginative display but I don’t remember what happened after my encounter with the master debater. Like Tommy T, I went there. Literal malakatude reigns supreme…

The same goes for his standing behind Hill when she was engaging with the voters onstage. It was flat-out creepy and stalkerish. I’m glad no one called 911. I guess his handlers didn’t remind him about Al Gore getting in W’s personal space and having it blow up in his face. Boom.

I may have more on the Slog in St. Louis tomorrow. I’m tired tonight; at least I was able to stay in the Crack Van the whole time. I didn’t have a lot to add. I was too busy watching an angry man with bad hair and counting the days until the end of this election. Even I want it over. Sniff, sniff.