Barry Soper: Three debates that have surely diminished the office of the US President

Opinion

There's one thing that you can say for certain now that the third and final American Presidential debate's over - Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will never again be in the same room as each other.

Their final outing ended as it started, they both ignored each other. Good manners, like a handshake, was out of the question. The fact that they had to verbally engage was unavoidable, even though it was clear that neither of them were interested in the other's point of view.

There has never been Presidential debates that even come close to the spectacle the world's witnessed with these two.

If the Republicans chose anyone other than Donald Trump, then we'd all today be rightly asking whether Hillary Clinton's fit for office. But the fact that Trump's been so bad has almost certainly assured her of four years in the White House which, given what happened the last time she occupied it as First Lady, you'd have to wonder why she'd want to be back there.

The usual ability of Americans to show some dignity, and at least a modicum of respect for their opponents, was never apparent with these two. But again, with the boorish, bullying, womanising and abusive Trump, that was never going to be a possibility.

Given what's been said during the past three debates, and what's been said in public between them, has surely diminished the office of the American President, which is likely to take a long time to recover.

The Republicans, who 18 months ago never in their wildest imagination could have contemplated Trump being where he is today, deserve to be reeling at their stupidity.

Trump's claim that the whole process has been rigged against him, with the media poisoning the minds of the electorate, is the talk of a man who knows he's lost. The poison was of his own making. Worse still was his refusal to say whether he'll accept the election result if he loses, which sends all the wrong signals to the rednecks who support him.

It's hard to imagine a more undignified and unattractive performance, more by him than her, although Clinton can take little solace as she now heads off to solidify her lead in the eleven so-called battleground states.

To use Trump's favourite word, this campaign for arguably the most the world's most powerful political job, has been nothing short of a disgrace!