I’m writing this on the eve of the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

While I hate the fact that I’ve written those two names in a sentence referring to a presidential debate, I always preferred Trump over Cruz and Rubio to win the Republican primaries. If you want to know why read my previous post How And Why I Would Vote For Donald Trump.

That post was written before the current polls that show a virtual dead heat between the two candidates, and before Professor Lichtman’s prediction that Trump will win. If you’ve never heard of him, just know that he hasn’t been wrong about presidential election results since 1984.

Now, if Donald and Hillary are in a dead heat after everything that Trump represents and everything that he doesn’t, I can only imagine that Hillary would be behind in the polls if either Cruz or Rubio would have been the Republican nominee. This realization is shocking, but not as shocking as the current polls.

This brings me to the question: What is wrong with Hillary?

For starters, she belongs to a party that is woefully incapable of effective political communication. This was the party that could not adequately present President Obama’s accomplishments. But worse, one that allowed the GOP to malign him, distort his policies, obstruct the process of governance, and outright lie; and all this, after eight disastrous years of a Bush presidency.

As with President Obama, the Democratic Party has been unable to effectively demonstrate Hillary Clinton’s vast experience and public service. Worse, once again, it has allowed the GOP to malign Hillary’s character and competence, and so successfully that even 40% of Democratic primary voters believe that she cannot be trusted, and 52% of all voters view her unfavorably.

I’ve said it before, in terms of communication, what can we expect from a Party that has an ass for a mascot?

I could go on listing other things that are “wrong with Hillary”, but why waste time?

After everything that the GOP has done since President Obama took office and the ensuing damage to our country, no Republican candidate deserves to even be in this race, much less Donald Trump. If after everything that he has said and shown us about himself he is neck to neck with Hillary. Then what’s wrong with Hillary is us, the voters.

Before we even show up to vote, we have a responsibility to be informed. I wonder how many people know that Hillary “Is One Of America’s Most Honest Politicians” ? That even Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of The New York Times, who due to her extensive investigations of Hillary throughout the years, is in her own words, “not a favorite in Hillaryland” wrote This May Shock You: Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest.

Hillary Clinton is one of the most qualified Presidential candidates in our entire country’s history. I don’t understand why she’s not likable, although I suspect that this is the result of years of smear campaigns by the GOP with a serving of misogyny thrown in.

Personally, I like Hillary Clinton. But even if I didn’t, I would still #1 vote and #2 vote for her. We already had a president who wasn’t qualified for the position, but with whom we could picture ourselves having a beer. Look how well that turned out. George W. Bush plunged us into war, recession, and division. Donald Trump is infinitely less qualified than Bush and infinitely more dangerous.

Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast said it best in his article An Open Letter to Swing Voters Still Considering Donald Trump. The entire article is worth reading, but here’s an excerpt:

One candidate is someone you’ve seen for 25 years, and you may be tired of her and unenthusiastic about her, and you don’t like the way her voice sounds, and you believe she’s constantly cutting ethical corners. Or you may think even worse than that. Fine. But you do concede she’s intelligent and temperamentally within the normal range of presidential contenders. The other candidate is…

Well, let’s just take two things he’s said in the last few days, because these two things, setting aside everything else, the making fun of the disabled reporter,the attacks on the parents of a dead U.S. soldier, are themselves  disqualifying for someone who wants to lead a free and democratic society.

The first was his assertion that Hillary Clinton was initially behind the lie that Barack Obama wasn’t born in America. Trump said this last Friday at a press conference—along with the claim that he, Trump, put an end to birtherism. Both are monstrous lies…

OK, swing voter. This is not “oh, they all lie” territory. Please examine with me the types of falsehoods. Clinton’s involve trying to explain away or cover up unflattering revelations—she used a private email for convenience’s sake, notably. That is unless you think she lied about Benghazi, which no one has ever proven she did, and if you believe she lied on that one I doubt you’re actually a swing voter.

So her prevarications are within the standard political realm. Trump’s birther lies are altogether different. Here, he is saying precisely the opposite of the truth, imputing to his opponent the thing he himself did—and did in plain view of an entire country that saw the opposite unfold, if it has the capacity to remember, and a free press that is committed to reminding us…

The second thing Trump did in recent days was make his second suggestion that perhaps Hillary Clinton should be shot. You remember the first one, when he said that “Second Amendment people” might be able to do something to block Clinton from appointing judges who oppose gun rights.

Of course he said it was a joke. Other supporters said he meant they must mobilize and vote. But come on. Watch the clip. The way he let it hang there. It’s obvious what he meant, and it wasn’t that gun enthusiasts should hold bake sales to raise money to promote the right to bear arms. He meant maybe someone should shoot her…

Last Friday, Trump said that since Clinton opposes unfettered gun rights, maybe her bodyguards should be disarmed and “let’s see what happens.” Pretty unambiguous. Was he suggesting that if their guns are taken away, she’ll…what? Catch cold? Only one thing correlates to the removal of guns from some people’s hands, and it’s that the other people get to use theirs with greater impunity.

It is a disgrace that Donald Trump is neck to neck with Hillary Clinton in the polls. There is something terribly wrong in this. But, I repeat, it’s not with Hillary; it’s with us.