The Fox network had drummed up the drama for the blockbuster clash of the titan and the tough broad, the battle of the sexes, the thrilla in Trump Tower.
What we got was the biggest damp squib since the “end of days” prediction by preacher Jerry Falwell that never happened.
Don’t blame Donald Trump. He took what was presented to him and turned it in his favor as any politician would. Instead of a showdown he got a sit-down with a glowing fan who seemingly wants to imitate the worst of Barbara Walters, who once asked Kate Hepburn “If you were a tree what kind of tree would you be.”
Whatever happened to the ferocious lioness of Fox, the woman who stood up to Trump when he tried to bully her? Trump was clearly deeply angry during that critical first debate that Kelly was asking the tough, hardball questions while others threw softballs.
She hit Trump hard on his misogyny, calling some women fat pigs, making remarks that were nothing more than sexual innuendo that went way over the top with others. It was a bravura performance that launched Kelly from relative obscurity at Fox into the national spotlight.
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In the aftermath Kelly became the focus of angry comments, including death threats from rabid Trump supporters, who wanted to put the little lady in her place. Kelly was having none of it saying, on Fox, when asked about the abuse “We have to ask the tough questions. In my own view, that doesn’t make us fair game for a year of personal insults.”
Kelly admitted death threats had been part of the attacks. “There’s no question it’s been a dark year in many ways,” she said.
Well she certainly lightened it up with her trite little tittering and softball questions on Tuesday night. Trump who exudes charm and bonhomie in such a situation simply hit everything out of the park.
By the end Kelly was reduced to huckstering her upcoming book on the campaign to be released in November. I have a funny feeling sales will plummet. If we want to hear about Trump's incandescent, genius and brilliance we only have to listen to the man himself.
Of course, Rupert Murdoch, master media manipulator, is now firmly in the Trump camp which he was not when the primary season started. Perhaps Kelly was inveigling herself into the good graces of the “Dirty Digger” as he is known by in England. Either way she may have ruined her prospects, which looked so lively just months ago, of being the best woman or man anchor on television. The tough broad persona has given way to the simpering sheep bleat scenario, just another camp follower of the Mighty Don.
A shame that.
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