Abortion is a substantive policy issue.
Whether Trump will run third party, his past tweets about Rosie O'Donnell and his company's experiences with bankruptcy are not substantive issues. They are personal issues.
The Fox moderators did not want voters to hear what Trump had to say about substantive policy issues. The first three questions to Trump were personal questions.
How would you have felt if their first question to Bush had had to do with drug problems in his family?
I think for the first debate... It’s all the above.
You can’t wait for the next one.
We’re all being played like big bass fiddles here....esp Trump.
He has to be chuckling...
He fired his manager, because the guy doesn’t GET IT!!!!
So what if the first three questions at Trump were personal? A prepared Donald Trump could have easily cleared the fence on all those questions and used them to illustrate a larger policy issue.
For example on bankruptcy and the laid off workers, that was Trumps chance to say “Thanks for asking this Chris! In business, stuff happens. I never once went into a project planning for it to fall apart, but nobody ever knows for sure what might go wrong. Everybody including the lenders and my employees knew the risks going in, and where I could, I gave those employees a look as we launched subsequent projects. None of those lenders went bankrupt, because they diversified knowing that not every loan pans out. Bankruptcy laws exist for lenders and employees to know exactly what can and can’t be done if a business venture fails, which seems to escape most journalists understanding.”
“The big problem is when failed leaders like Barack Obama turn those laws on their heads, in the case of GM giving ownership stakes to the unions that were the primary cause of the failure while screwing preferred shareholders, in many cases retirees and the disabled. That creates CHAOS and is one of many ways that Barack Obama and his Legion of Gloom economic team have CRIPPLED this economy. SHAME on you and your so-called ‘journalist’ colleagues for not asking a single question about this during his reelection SCAM-paign!”
“My economic plan will bring Crony Capitalism to an END! Every regulation and every tax will be reviewed through a prism of ‘How will this help make America Great Again,’ and scaled back or repealed as needed to get us there!”
But no one was brave enough to debate prep the Donald on these types of questions, and he blew his chance to completely take charge. He was too arrogant and unprepared, and needs to learn how to take any negative question, respond directly, calmly and compassionately, use that same issue to paint the Democratic enemies of America as far worse, then close with a positive, passionate policy statement.
Whether or not any of the candidates will run third party is one of the most substantive questions that could be asked. That could have a real effect on whether people do or do not vote for him.
Asking about a family member did is probably not irrelevant. Asking about what you did is a different story. Personal issues matter. That’s why Slick Willy was asked whether he inhaled or not.
We don’t often have a loudmouth candidate known for lobbing insults at people in the race. We’ve never had to think about whether that’s relevant or not, but I’d say it is. That may turn off voters in the general election. Bush was also asked whether he called Trump an a-hole, so no special treatment was given.
Trump is running without having ever held elected office. So his personal business dealings and any problems up to and including bankruptcies are the most relevant topics we can look at to determine if he’s qualified to run the country.