Hillary Clinton is likely to win the American elections, or so the pundits seem to suggest, despite the continuing public outcry against her untrustworthiness and her being a compulsive liar, her extreme "carelessness" with respect to classified material, her denials of the "pay for play" associated with the Clinton Foundation, all part of the Wikileaks scandal which shows no signs of abating.
Also her failed Middle East policy involving regime change in places like Syria, Iraq and Libya leading to the devastation in those countries and the rise of Isis arising from the vacuum, and notably, the tragedy of Benghazi leading to the loss of American lives.
Not inconsequential to her impending victory is the active support of the incumbent Obamas whose partisanship as heads of State gives rise to ethical questions, and of course the mainstream media, FOX excepted, whose position is so biased in favour of Clinton that even with all of the above against Hillary, the media houses virtually ignore Hillary's indiscretions.
They instead focus on those associated with Trump with a bare-facedness which belies the objectivity of the media, and the American media at that.
And added to all this is the fact the Republican top brass, no doubt still smarting from the licking they got from Trump in the primaries and lacking the character of supporting the ticket despite their loss, would seek to satisfy their petty ambitions of striving for a place in the Senate even as they neglect Trump. And further, even court Trump's loss at the polls which would facilitate their ambitions for the presidency in 2020 with Trump out of the way.
So how can Trump win in the face of all this? More so, he makes it easier for the opposition, for Hillary's void in terms of having a winning message for the American people continues to be compensated for by the sustained effort–likely manipulated by the Democrats considering the number of never-before-seen women now willing to testify–to make him look like a sexual predator. And this together with his numerous faux pas and often instinctual responses to issues goes a long way in alienating many voters.
But even with that, Trump is seen as an agent of change and that is an extremely attractive proposition for many American voters who see Hillary as the establishment candidate who will simply continue many of the failed Obama policies.
His 100-day plan from his speech at Gettysburg involving controlled immigration and secure borders, draining the swamp that is Washington with term limits for politicians and lobbyists, more jobs with revised trade policies, combating Islamic terrorism and eliminating Isis, inter alia, is music to the ears of every day Americans.
And who knows, with all the predictions that this race is over in favour of Hillary, is there another Brexit in the making?
Dr Errol Benjamin