Where to start, where to start. There’s so much to talk about from the Clinton-Trump showdown to get you Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
‘I will keep you in suspense’
Donald Trump has thumbed his nose at pretty much every known political tradition during this wacky campaign, so should we really be surprised that he refused to say whether he’ll accept the election results if he loses? Republicans were horrified. CNN analyst Van Jones said, “You can’t polish this turd.” And Trump’s campaign manager, pressed for an answer, ran away.
And the winner is …
Debate watchers in a CNN/ORC poll handed the victory to Clinton: 52% to Trump’s 39%. (Note: This is a real poll, not a bogus online one.) More bad news for Team Trump: The latest electoral map shows him in his weakest political position of the entire campaign.
The man of the hour
Fox News’ Chris Wallace earned major props as moderator. He focused on substantive issues and kept the candidates in line “like a veteran teacher monitoring detention hall,” Stephen King tweeted. (Yeah, that Stephen King.) Trump and Clinton seemed to like his work too. At least they shook his hand.
Lies, damned lies and half truths
Sexual assault accusations against Trump debunked? False. Clinton’s tax plan not adding a penny to the federal debt? False. Trump encouraging the Russians to hack the US? True. Clinton’s stat about 33,000 gun deaths annually? Misleading. Here’s a full list of last night’s whoppers. Warning: It’ll take you a good 20 minutes to get through them all.
Quick hits:
Here are the 5 takeaways from the Trump-Clinton tangle.
Here are the one-liners they dropped. And how #badhombres became a thing.
Here’s the debate in 90 seconds … and in gifs.
And here’s Trump Jr. saying the presidency is a “step down” for dad.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.
Air raid
Turkey killed 200 Kurdish militants during airstrikes near Aleppo. Shouldn’t Turkey be fighting ISIS? It is. But it’s also going after Kurds. Here’s why.
Judging the judge
A Montana judge is catching heat after he sentenced a man who repeatedly raped his 12-year-old daughter to just 60 days in jail.
Lost in space
The European Space Agency wishes Schiaparelli would phone home. The spacecraft hasn’t been heard from since it tried to land on Mars.
Failure to launch
North Korea appears to have failed again while trying to launch a missile this morning. That’s two failures in a week.
Top of the world
For the first time in almost 20 years, the Cleveland Indians are headed to the World Series. They beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 to win the ALCS.
AND FINALLY …
Birds in the sky, you know how I feel
Daniel the duck is an emotional therapy animal and often flies with his owner. Of course, he gets the window seat.