An uphill scramble
US PRESIDENTIAL candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off for the third and final presidential debate of the 2016 general election at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
With his poll numbers sliding precipitously less than three weeks from election day, the head-to-head provided Trump with perhaps his last, best chance to make the case for himself – and, more to the point, the case against Clinton – to a prime-time television audience.
For the former secretary of state, the three debates have been an exercise in forbearance, as she strove to present a positive vision for the country while facing increasingly intense attacks from her opponent amid the most acrimonious presidential campaign in memory.
Trump kept his temper in check for the evening’s first act, but as the debate wore on he showed flashes of anger, describing Clinton as a “nasty woman” running a “sleazy campaign” and accusing the media of “poisoning the minds of voters”.
Despite heated exchanges on subjects including women’s rights, Russian computer hacks and the fairness of the electoral process, in what is likely to prove the evening’s most enduring and controversial moment, Trump declined to say whether he would accept the results of the election, saying he would “look at it at the time”, but that until then he planned to keep voters “in suspense”.
Clinton rightly called his stance a “horrifying” repudiation of US democracy. “Respecting the will of the voters has since the end of the Civil War allowed for a peaceful transition of power that has made this country the envy of the world,” she said.
Trump sparked hilarity and derisory laughter from the audience when he said nobody respects women more than he does. Clinton had remarked: “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, and I don’t think there is a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.”
Trump has been accused of various accounts of sexual harassment, as well as being recorded appearing to discuss sexual assault.
The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project, which uses a massive online opinion poll to project election outcomes in all 50 states, estimates that Clinton has a 95 percent chance of winning the election by about 118 votes in the Electoral College if it were held today.
Another survey, conducted by CNN/ORC, found that 52 percent of voters believe Clinton won the 90-minute debate compared to 39 percent of participants who said Trump won the contest.
Trump persists with his strategy that he has employed during recent weeks: shore up his hard-core supporters and hope that’s enough to win. He has antagonised a huge chunk of the electorate – women, Hispanics, Muslims, immigrants and others. And he’s behind Clinton in most battleground states. He has an uphill battle.