Tonight was the third and final debate of the 2016 presidential race and it was arguably the best one in terms of substance. The debate had a few shining moments, however, none were better than when Hillary defended a woman’s right to choose on the question of abortion. Her response was imbued with a moral clarity and conviction usually espoused by the religious right in its opposition to a woman’s right to control her own body. It was by far the best response on the issue I have ever witnessed during a debate by any politician. Her response struck such a chord of sincerity and personal connection to the topic that it can only be characterized as her most “human” moment of the campaign.
This, however, was soon followed by, in my own opinion, one of her worst responses of the night. That moment came when the moderator, Mr. Wallace, said “…we’ve learned from the WikiLeaks, that you said this, and I want to quote. ‘My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders.’ So that’s the question… Is that your dream, open borders?” Rather than taking advantage of the opportunity by promoting the idea of fair and free trade between us and our neighbors, she fall back to a bland and uninspiring reply having to do with energy. She had the opportunity to have a brief but substantive conversation with the American people on how free moving commerce between nations can a be a tool used to improve both the strategic and economic interests of our nation. Regardless, this was not what she did. As a result she missed the opportunity to make her case for current and future free trade agreements. For me, that was the low point of the debate.