Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. 

By Britt Nelson

Wednesday night’s ‘Commander-In-Chief’ Forum in New York between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump did little to change minds about which candidate would best serve as the next president of the United States. Neither Clinton nor Trump brought home any political bacon.

Clinton’s answers to questions about her now infamous private email system were evasive, repetitive and incomplete. At times she appeared irritated as questions about her past kept being asked.

Trump scored no points when he blurted out that women should not serve alongside men in the U.S. military, but he added he would do nothing to remove women from the military.

Moderated by NBC Today Show co-anchor Matt Lauer, the first-of-its-kind forum also took questions from the audience as both candidates spoke back-to-back for 30-minutes each, but not appearing on stage together.

The forum is being viewed as a preview to the upcoming four debates between Clinton and Trump, and vice-presidential candidates Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Democrat Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Clinton and Trump will first debate in New York on Sept 26, followed by debates on Oct. 9 in Missouri and Oct. 19 in Nevada. The vice-presidential candidates will debate on Oct. 4 in Virginia. The nationwide general election is set for Nov. 8.

National polls — conducted after Sept. 1 — are clearly showing a narrowing of the race between Clinton and Trump, according to Real Clear Politics poll averaging. Trump has pulled ahead of Clinton is several polls, but that’s the nature of judging public opinion and opinions change as more events come into play and the voting public learns more about the candidates.

In today’s Internet world there is a place called ‘social media,’ and in this cesspool of public opinion Clinton is getting clobbered even on her own Facebook page managed by the Clinton Campaign.

What’s amazing are the replies from Americans across the country and others from overseas left on Clinton’s Facebook page. On post after post after Sept. 5 the responding comments are running more than 50 percent for Trump. In a post about the meaning of Labor Day the first 20 comments were harshly critical of Clinton. In another post about illegal immigrants the first 30 comments went 3 for Clinton and 27 for Trump. WOW!

At the University of South Florida in Tampa on Tuesday afternoon Clinton held a campaign rally; a live-streaming broadcast event on Fox News/Facebook. The hundreds upon hundreds of running comments in real-time from viewers located across the country were overwhelmingly against Clinton and most were for Trump.

At the same time, also on Fox News/Facebook, Trump held a rally in Virginia Beach; in the streaming, hundreds of comments were overwhelmingly for Trump and against Clinton.

Is it possible that social media is more accurate than mainstream media and national polls? What is clear is that ‘social media’ is playing a role in Campaign 2016 like never before.

Among the thousands and thousands of political Facebook comments about Campaign 2016 this one stood out.

“I swear that 90 percent of the people I talk to are Trump supporters. I don’t see how the polls can say anything different,” commented David Howard, of Omaha, Nebraska. “My job takes me all over the country and very conservatively 90 percent of the people I bring up politics to – which I do everywhere I go because I feel it’s my job to enlighten people – to at least investigate and make a wise choice — say they like Donald Trump.”

Another comment read, “I can’t recall if I am running for president or not,” a humorous reference to the recently released FBI report on Clinton’s FBI interview about her private email system in which she claimed, “I can’t recall,” to many of the questions asked of her by the FBI.

It would be hard to measure the influence of social media on today’s voter, but it’s everywhere you look. It’s a safe bet this influence will be studied more after the election is over.

Young people, middle-agers and seniors are spending many hours gazing at their smart phones and many of them are voters. They must be learning something.

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.