Last night’s final presidential debate for this election held about fifteen minutes of my attention before I returned to watching the Chicago Cubs work their way toward the World Series. But I heard Trump’s comments on supporting Hillary Clinton if she wins the election.
Basically, for anyone living on an ice floe in the Arctic and not privy to television or a smart phone, Trump wouldn’t say what he’d do, preferring to leave us in “suspense.”
It is tradition – no, it’s what our country is based on — that the defeated candidate accepts the vote and makes a statement that he or she will get behind the winner for the sake of the country. Think of Al Gore when he lost because of hanging chads. He did not keep us in suspense once the final tally was done. Mitt Romney didn’t either. More recently, think of Bernie Sanders who said he would support Hillary Clinton if she got the nomination. He didn’t keep us in suspense either. What would be the point?
Donald Trump won the GOP nomination because he won more votes in the primaries than his opponents. Granted, there was talk of placing someone else’s name in play at the convention; but in the end a popular vote worked in Trump’s favor.
If it works against him now, there will be no suspense. There will simply be a poor loser and greater rancor across the land.
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