64 Hours In October: How One Weekend Blew Up The Rules Of American Politics

[babylonsister]

POLITICS 10/06/2017 04:30 pm ET
64 Hours In October: How One Weekend Blew Up The Rules Of American Politics
A firsthand account of the drama that unfolded during Oct. 7-9, 2016.


NEW YORK — It began as a relatively quiet day in the presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were each holed up with their aides on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, preparing for the second presidential debate, scheduled for Sunday night. Hurricane Matthew, which was churning off the Florida coast, led the Friday-morning newscasts. The Chicago Cubs were beginning a quest for their first World Series title in more than a century. But by midafternoon three separate bombshells, all coming within the span of roughly 90 minutes, threatened to throw the race into chaos.

First, the top intelligence officials of the Obama administration announced their belief that the Russian government was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee earlier in the year. Then the Washington Post published the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Donald Trump bragged about forcing himself on women. And WikiLeaks dumped its trove of emails from the Clinton campaign, hacked from the account of campaign head John Podesta.

snip//

The dizzying events of that weekend reflect some essential truths about the two candidates and their campaigns: Clinton cool, cautious and cocooned by staff; Trump instinctual, aggressive and unbound by propriety and convention. The same qualities that have so often gotten him in trouble were also the ones that rescued him from this crisis. An embarrassment that might have ended the career of a more conventional candidate somehow morphed into an opportunity for him to show off his resilience — a lesson the nation is still learning about the candidate who emerged triumphant from that one astonishing weekend, one year ago.

5 a.m. ET: Hurricane Matthew is about 40 miles east-southeast of Cape Canaveral, Fla., heading north-northwest at 13 miles per hour. The National Hurricane Center in Miami warns that the Category 3 storm — which had already killed more than 300 people in Haiti — is expected to produce life-threatening conditions for those living along Florida’s east coast.

more, but I had just taken cover from Matthew, so my attention was elsewhere...

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yahoo-64-hours-october-american-politics_us_59d7c567e4b072637c43dd1c