At first glance, Donald Trump’s Wednesday Reddit AMA was a heavily-vetted and therefore disappointingly boring affair. And if you compare how Trump answers questions about big issues facing Americans versus how President Barack Obama has answered similar queries on Reddit, it’s even more apparent at how much Trump insulates himself from addressing issues in a complex and substantial way.
Mic editorial director Cooper Fleishman posted a comparison of how Trump answered a question about lessening the influence of money on politics with how Obama answered it. Even at first glance, the differences are striking:
https://twitter.com/_Cooper/status/758765734059212801
Obama’s answer includes specific policy changes, such as passing the Disclose Act to becoming transparent about who is donating money to which politicians. Obama even poses a daring suggestion, that someone start a process to amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United. All in all, he gives an informed and interesting answer.
Trump’s answer is less helpful. He suggests that defeating “Crooked Hillary” will make the influence of money go away in politics. This answer is nothing new if you even glance at his Twitter feed once in a while. He also implies that this issue is only a Hillary Clinton issue instead of a systemic problem.
According to News.Com.Au, Trump did “win” his AMA, though, in these categories:
But Trump did beat the President on comments and questions. He had more than 24,000 comments posted on his AMA, while Obama had more than 23,000 comments. Obama answered 10 questions, while Trump ended up answering 13 in total (after initially only answering eight).
However, Obama’s AMA received more points than Trump’s.
In addition, the commentary on Twitter about the AMA was more interesting than the AMA itself.
Re: Reddit AMA. with Trump. I love AMA’s but this was a TURKEY. He blandly answered 8 Q’s. If I was 1 of his groupies I’d be nonplussed.
— Towleroad (@tlrd) July 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/CactusFlow3r/status/758443879376891904
How incredible was that moment when you realized you were entirely free from the bonds of ethics, morality, empathy, and civility? #TrumpAMA
— Samantha Bee (@realsambee) July 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/Khanoisseur/status/758447972308938752
https://twitter.com/aurabogado/status/758446625635217408
Imagine if Trump had taken a crack at these questions, even with his standard “Crooked Hillary” answers. That, of course, would’ve brought more attention to the questionable parts of his campaign and reputation. It would be difficult even for a candidate as popular as Trump to survive that.
(via News.Com.Au)