Clinton scores; Duterte’s alliances

Last week’s first presidential debate in the US between Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump showed how fortune favors the prepared.

Hillary Clinton came to the debate very well prepared as she practiced on a mock debate while Donald Trump came to the debate clearly unprepared.

Clinton not only studied Trump’s style but also the topics that would unnerve and bait her opponent to commit mistakes. And indeed she unnerved Trump so much that he fumbled several times.

Trump miserably failed to bring some issues that are considered his strengths like the economy, peace and security while Clinton highlighted how Trump treated the women in the community especially the case of a former Miss Universe whom he called Ms. Piggy for supposedly being fat.

After the debate, Trump insisted that he won on the basis of the results of online voting while scientific voting and surveys showed Clinton winning in the debate by a wide margin.
The last few days, Trump attempted to counter Clinton’s alleged victory by tweeting the whole day even up to 3 a.m. attacking his opponent and the former Miss Universe.

During the debate, Clinton mentioned that Trump refused to release his tax returns maybe because Trump has not paid his tax at all. Trump was baited into boasting that he is smart for not paying his tax at all.

As predicted Trump blamed everything including the microphone for his dismal performance and that led the audience to hear his bothersome sniffling.

Mind you, Trump has been considered by many as a formidable opponent when he clobbered his opponents for the Republican nomination with his wit and acerbic statements.

Team Clinton studied Trump’s psychology so much so that they were able to anticipate his reactions to certain statements and events. But what the debate showed was that preparation counts for everything in a debate.

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I am an avid supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs, but what bothers me is how our president has been attacking and insulting the leaders of the US and European Union and is starting to cement an alliance with Russia and China.

I think it is a waste for us to throw our multi-decade alliance with the US, though I subscribe that we should have an independent foreign policy. But we must be careful in dealing and having alliances with Russia and China.

We should study what is happening in Aleppo, Syria to know how Russia deals with civil war there. We should also look into the status of the Russian economy.

We should be careful with China in the South China Sea as it bullied our very own Filipino fishermen. How can we have an alliance with a bully that has attacked our helpless fishermen whose only fault is to fish in an area that has been considered as ours.

So our government should be doubly careful in trying to enter into alliances with Russia and China because it may place us in a worse situation than our present alliances with the US and EU.