6 Takeaways From The First Presidential Debate

6 Takeaways From The First Presidential Debate By Donald Trump August 19, 2015 (cropped).jpg: BU Rob13 Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg: Gage [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsClinton and Trump offered substantiative responses Actual substance was, arguably, lacking for much of the debate. But it was not entirely without real, concrete ideas. When asked about relations between law enforcement and people of color, Clinton took a strong stance on gun control and advocated for rebuilding trust between communities and retraining police officers. When defending his plan to cut taxes for the wealthy and businesses, Trump argued that unemployment would decrease and federal revenue increase if that wealth was freed up. Each candidate had at least a few moments in which they offered clear, substantiative responses instead of the petty squabbling many had anticipated. Clintons lines were over-scripted Both candidates illustrated the essential nature of debate preparation. Yet sometimes Clinton came off as  too  prepared, insofar as she struggled to work in obviously scripted lines. At one point Clinton criticized Trumps belief in trickle down economics by calling his policies Trumped up, trickle down economics. It drew praise from supporters, but along with several other lines, it may have alienated undecided voters. Some pundits have accused Clinton of being robotic, with a tendency to regurgitate the facts and one-liners shes already rehearsed. Squeezing in well-worded, but clearly scripted, ripostes did nothing to fight that belief. Trump struggled with honesty   Fact-checkers called out both candidates for false or misleading statements, but most fact-checking sites found far more faults in Trumps remarks. At one point in the debate, moderator Lester Holt brought up Trumps support for the Iraq war in 2002. Trump ardently denied that he had ever supported the war, calling Holt wrong, wrong, wrong. PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website,  called Trumps claim a myth and rated it false  based on an interview with Howard Stern before the invasion in which hed expressed support for the war. Later, Clinton brought up a tweet from 2012 in which Trump said that climate change was a hoax devised by the Chinese to hurt American manufacturers. Trump denied that he had ever said that, but Politico determined that  the tweet was in fact legitimate,  and became one of the most retweeted on Twitter for the night. Trump fumbled with other facts, like saying that he couldnt release his tax returns because he was being audited or that Clinton had been fighting ISIS for her entire adult life. Clinton mastered body language Although as a society we are loathe to admit it, sometimes image matters more than the words that are actually being said. Take the 1960 debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, for example. Radio listeners declared Nixon the winner, but those who saw the debate televised believed Kennedy had won. In this case, speaking purely in terms of body language, Clinton mirrored Kennedys 1960 performance. She mastered the body language game, appearing calm and collected throughout the debate while her opponent energetically pantomimed every statement. Trump, physically speaking, appeared to be rankled like Nixon. Thats not likely to play as well with audiences as Clintons performance. Trump had trouble keeping cool   Trump began the debate without his characteristic flair. For the first 10 to 15 minutes, Trump debated rather calmly. But it didnt take long for Clintons comments to get under his skin, and after those several opening minutes, Trumps anger only intensified. Besides physically indicating his anger through body language, Trump appeared flustered at various points. No doubt he had been prepped with ammunition like the emerging Clinton Foundation scandal, but he hardly brought up any substantial attacks against Clinton besides a half-hearted jab about her emails. He did point out that she had once called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the gold standard and only changed her tune when public opinion turned against the TPP, but failed to press the attack sufficiently. Worse, Trump interrupted Clinton and moderator Lester Holt dozens of times. Contrasted against their calm demeanors, Trump came off as angry and wild. The more his hands fluttered about the screen and his answers devolved into vague circular logic games, the clearer it became that Trump was unable to remain calm. Lester Holt was a successful moderator The quality of the moderator can make or break a debate. With two fiery candidates who have ripped each other apart politically and personally for months on the same stage, Lester Holt had quite the challenge ahead of him. But Holt handled things near-perfectly, even while playing moderator and real-time fact-checker all at once. He reined in the candidates when they strayed off-topic and pressed them for details when their answers werent to his satisfaction, but offered them enough leeway to engage in a meaningful back-and-forth without being cut off. Although Holt has been criticized for not interrupting candidates as often as some viewers would have liked, he managed to strike a balance between interrupting when appropriate and letting debate flow naturally. Overall, each candidate had moments to be proud of and moments to cringe at. Trump shined at the beginning, but quickly lost steam and devolved into ranting while on the defensive. Clintons start was a bit shakier, especially given that some viewers may have seen her as disrespectful for calling Trump by his first name (even though he addressed her with the honorific Secretary). But as Trump faltered, Clinton hit her stride and performed generally well through the following stages of the debate. With each candidate painfully aware of their missteps but now certain of how to target their opponent, the second presidential debate on October 9 is sure to be a nail-biting display of just how bitter this race has become.

How To Recover From Internship Embarrassment

How To Recover From Internship Embarrassment pixabay.com Initial embarrassment may be inevitable, but prolonged embarrassment doesn’t have to be. With these few easy tricks, you’ll be out of your embarrassment funk in no time and ready to take on your internship again. 1. You’re supposed to make mistakes. As an intern, you’re there to learn. And oftentimes, as much as we usually hate it, learning also means making mistakes. You can’t have a perfect day, every single day. You can’t possibly know and execute everything exactly right, no matter how much you try. Also, remember that the things you do will stay in people’s minds far less than you think it will. The embarrassing thing you’ll remember for two years, everyone else will forget within the week. Just think about it. How many embarrassing moments of other people can you recall without them having told you themselves? That’s right, probably not that many. You may obsess over every action you take, but remember that everyone else is doing the exact same thing. As individuals, we focus on ourselves, so don’t take what other people might think too seriously. 2. Think about the future. The past is easy to get caught up in. Because the past is the only thing we know, we tend to overanalyze and think endlessly about the things we’ve messed up on or could’ve done differently. Of course, doing this has no purpose. You simply cannot change the past, no matter how hard you try. A better thing to do is focus on your future. The future is something you have control over and can be productive about. If you made a mistake that can be easily fixed, go out of your way to address the problem and find solutions to solve it. Perhaps you need to learn to manage your schedule or be more careful about proofreading your work; whatever it is that needs fixing, be conscious of it and plan to make changes in the future. 3. Remember the good things you’ve done. The worst thing about one embarrassing experience is that it often overshadows all the other great experiences surrounding it. You could’ve been having a great, productive day at work and then your morale was totally ruined by one event. Naturally, this will happen. You can’t combat the terrible feelings immediately, but what you can do is prevent them from persisting too long. Before you get way too down on yourself and think about all the terrible things you’ve done in the past, try and remember all the great things. Think of the compliments you’ve been given lately or the person who smiled at you on the street. Any small, nice thing to remember is far better than dwelling on the one bad thing. 4. Get organized. Being a probably young intern, you can’t overcome the years of experience other people will have over you. What you can do, however, is try and get as much of your stuff as organized as possible. Nothing appears more adult-like than a well-organized person. If your embarrassment was anything project related or about handing things in late, organizing your life will make all the difference. I recommend getting some sort of planner and also making a spreadsheet. Doing this will help you prioritize what needs to be done and when. This makes it much easier on you to stay on top of things and tackle projects because you don’t have to remember it all. You can simply look it up in your planner or on your computer. Such an easy fix to combat those office mistakes. 5. Listen to other’s stories. Like I said earlier, be aware that others will remember their terrible embarrassments before they’ll remember yours. If you’re still feeling really self-conscious about it, try bringing it up to others. I know, it seems counter intuitive, but it may spark a conversation with your other coworkers about the embarrassing things they did as an intern or maybe even as an adult now! Once you get the ball rolling, you’ll be surprised at how many hilarious and downright awful things that have happened. Often, these stories will make you realize that your embarrassment pales in comparison to what has happened to others. Your coworkers will also probably provide needed support and encouragement to get you through. Hopefully by now you’re starting to realize that everyone gets overly dramatic over a little embarrassment. You are certainly not alone. However, the sooner you realize that it’s no big deal, the sooner you can start laughing about it. Who knows, this might even turn into one of your best stories to tell!