By Britt Nelson

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

Now that both the Republicans and the Democrats have held their national conventions, not much has changed. Republican New York billionaire Donald Trump and Democrat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have accepted their party’s nomination for President. They will face off in the general election coming up 101 days from now on Nov. 8.

In Clinton’s acceptance speech Thursday night, she stressed familiar Democratic themes of love, peace, happiness, acceptance and party unity. She also bashed Trump 21 times during her speech, said CNN.

“Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart, bonds of trust and respect are fraying,” Clinton said to cheering supporters. “And just as with our founders there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all rise together.”

Speaker after speaker touted Clinton’s years of experience as First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State. Others spoke of her compassion for others and a refusal to quit no matter what has been thrown at her over the years.

Trump, however was quick to respond to Clinton’s speech. “They aren’t talking about the real world,” he said Friday morning. “They are not talking about radical Islamic extremism.”

There was an intriguing group of speakers, however, that did not mention Clinton one time as they spoke of the challenges and the mounting tragedies facing community law enforcement officers throughout the USA.

Female Sheriff Lupe Valdez, of Dallas County, Texas, who had previously endorsed Clinton months ago, but Thursday night she did not express any support for the new nominee and neither did the four family members of slain police officers, who each spoke briefly. Perhaps their mere presence was endorsement enough, but still it seemed odd none of them spoke the nominee’s name.

“When my officers report for duty, they have no idea what might come up that day. They don’t know whether the next 911 call will be their last,” Valdez told a hushed audience. “They keep putting their lives on the line. They are doing the best they can to protect our communities. We put on our badges every day to serve and protect, not to hate and discriminate. Violence is not the answer … We have to start listening to each other.”

With the last convention over and looking ahead, Clinton and Trump will face each other directly on a Sept. 26 debate; until then, the candidates will be watching elections polls, giving speeches at campaign events and scrambling for media coverage as they attack each other with millions of dollars spent on negative TV advertising and social media messages.

Clinton still has a whopping problem with trust worthiness in the eyes of voters. Trump less so, but many voters just don’t like the controversial anti-establishment candidate.

In the areas of trust, Clinton needs a lot of work.

According to a New York Times/CBS News poll, 67 percent of all voters and 74 percent of independents said they do not trust Clinton. In addition, numerous polls show that about 65 percent of all voters feel the USA is headed in the wrong direction.

Since the Republican convention, Trump received a bump in nationwide polls from one to seven percentage points over Clinton. In other nationwide polls, Clinton leads Trump by slim margins. But here we are stuck with two candidates that have large negatives surrounding them both.

Clinton is increasingly coming under fire from the national news media for not giving a press conference in more than 230 days. Clinton has given several recent one-on-one, and pre-arranged media interviews with overly friendly reporters that ask easy “softball” questions. These encounters are coming across as shallow and charade-like.

Trump, however, seems to hold a press conference nearly every day, taking questions from any of the reporters wherever he is campaigning. This disparity will cost Clinton — she truly cannot handle the truth.

During a Fox & Friends appearance, Trump explained that he had spoken sarcastically when he said that he hoped Russian hackers working for the Kremlin could find thousands of intriguing email messages deleted by Clinton during her time as Secretary of State. He also explained that he would like to see Russia as an ally in the fight against ISIS, even though he also stated “I have nothing to do with Russia” when asked about whether he maintained communications with President Vladimir Putin.

There is a good chance the Democrats may wish they had nominated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, instead of Clinton. That man had no negatives, and his supporters loved him and that love would have proved infectious, but now Bernie can’t save the Democrats.

Both political parties have now made their anti-establishment and establishment choices that they will have to live and win with.

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.