Like millions of other Americans, I finished watching the debate between Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Trump is what you would expect of him - nasty, boorish and full of shit. He also made a lot of faces and sounded like a fucking lunatic. But a lot of people like the fact that he's nasty, boorish, full of shit, makes faces and sounds like a fucking lunatic.
But those qualities turn off an equally significant number of people. Aside from the usual balderdash about millions of people crossing the border and causing crime and claiming inflation was the worst in American history, Trump actually tried to peddle the story that Haitian immigrants are "eating pets" in Springfield, Ohio, a fabrication championed by his running mate J.D. Vance. The question remains is if this garbage will repel voters or rally them to his side. Or perhaps this will go down the memory hole just like everything else and people will have forgotten he ever mentioned it in a week from now.
This brings me to Kamala Harris. She wasn't intimidated by Trump. Indeed, she took the initiative to shake his hand which I think caught him slightly off guard. But Harris has posited herself as the prosecutor and Trump as the convict. Harris stood up to Trump, but he wasn't phased in the least. She made no mistakes but I'm not sure she helped herself at all. It also didn't help that Trump ran roughshod over David Muir and Linsey Davis, but when Harris tried to interject, Davis shot her down firmly.
I would have liked Harris to challenge his claims of record inflation, that liberal scholars wanted Roe v. Wade overturned and reminded him that our unemployment rate has been below 4% most of the past 3½ years.
Yesterday, I argued:
When the time comes, Harris will need to take command of the stage, not be intimidated nor distracted by Trump's antics while convincing and reassuring voters who might be on the fence that America will be in good hands with her in the Oval Office.
While she was neither intimidated nor distracted by Trump, she didn't take command of the stage I'm not sure how reassuring she was to people. Unfortunately, based on this debate performance, I don't think Harris did enough. In which case, we might end up with a hung jury or an acquittal. This would mean a second Trump presidency.
In Harris' closing statement she spoke of being a President who asked Americans, "Are you OK?" and caring about us rather than herself. But Trump, for all his nastiness, boorish and bullshit, pointedly asked why Harris hadn't done any of things she said she was going to do in 3½ years in the White House.
Mind you, many of us who watched the debate (me included) have already chosen our candidate. For the sliver among us who haven't decided, I don't think this debate moved the needle much as the kids like to say.
All of which means the next 8 weeks are going to be a very long slog. But we will be treated to VP debate between Tim Walz and J.D. Vance in 3 weeks from now.
No comments:
Post a Comment