Henry Kissinger supposedly said that about the Iran-Iraq war three decades ago. After watching last night's Presidential debate -- I lasted through about half of it before firing up Netflix -- I'm overwhelmed by the same feeling.
America is going to elect as its next President one of two uninspiring septuagenarians. (I'm rounding up in Hillary Clinton's case, but not by much). Ms Clinton is a machine politician with demonstrably bad judgment (the private e-mail server) and a fair amount of ethical baggage. If she has any new ideas, she's keeping them to herself. Donald Trump is a property developer with a track record of bankruptcies and a reality TV performer with a nice line in bullying. If he has any good ideas, he's keeping them to himself.
By any normal political calculus, Clinton won the debate last night, but she didn't get anywhere close to landing a knockout blow. Her failure to follow up when Trump almost bragged about how he profited from the wreckage of so many people's lives in the financial crisis -- "that's called business" -- was distressing. For his part, Trump appears to think he was too well-behaved last night and is promising to "hit her harder" in the remaining debates -- assuming he actually turns up: his criticisms of the moderator might just be a prelude to walking out in a huff.
Hoo boy -- if watching forty minutes of these aging pugilists last night was enough to wear me out, the next four years are going to be a real trial, whoever wins in November.
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