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A Debate for the Ages
Author: BobR
Date: 09/11/2024 13:36:42
Sorry for the late blog - we watched the debate, and then the MSNBC analysis, and then Colbert (because he was live), and... well... it was a late night.
But wow - what a debate! Kamala Harris was outstanding, clearly laying out her plans and details. She gave tRumpy looks that would whither a flower. He kept trying to bait her, and she never bit. On the other hand, he was all over the place. He never provided any details to any of his "plans". He looked angry and like the dog that got caught getting into the trash, but trying to pretend he didn't. She baited him constantly, and he couldn't help himself - he jumped on it again and again and again.
There are plenty of post-debate analyses, and most of them come to the same conclusion as me...
The moderators did okay. They did fact-check him a couple times, with one moderator saying "It is against the law in all 50 states to kill a child after it's born" (in response to tRumpy's claim that abortion doctors were "aborting" babies after they were born). The other moderator also shot down his claim that immigrants were eating pets. Yes, he actually made that claim on live TV during a nationally-televised debate.
On the other hand, they let tRumpy interrupt them, and gave him too many opportunities to respond, while not offering the same to Vice-President Harris (maybe they were playing rope-a-dope with him?)
The pièce de résistance came after the debate, when Taylor Swift posted a ringing endorsement of Kamala Harris. Whether or not you like her music, she has 200M followers on Instagram (mostly women of all ages) who are going to see that endorsement. Yes, that is big.
I assumed coming into this last night that she would be okay. She was far better than "okay", and he was much worse. I am looking forward to seeing how the polls react to the debate. It would be sadly telling if the needle hasn't moved because of it.
But wow - what a debate! Kamala Harris was outstanding, clearly laying out her plans and details. She gave tRumpy looks that would whither a flower. He kept trying to bait her, and she never bit. On the other hand, he was all over the place. He never provided any details to any of his "plans". He looked angry and like the dog that got caught getting into the trash, but trying to pretend he didn't. She baited him constantly, and he couldn't help himself - he jumped on it again and again and again.
There are plenty of post-debate analyses, and most of them come to the same conclusion as me...
To be sure, Harris used her time on stage to “prosecute the case” against Trump, as expected, criticizing his positions on taxes, abortion, the border, Jan. 6, Ukraine, Obamacare and so on.
But more important than what Harris told viewers about Trump — all of which they’ve heard before, and largely learned to tune out — was what she managed to show them: How easily he can be baited into losing control.
Skillful prosecutors know how to provoke self-incriminating behavior — and that was very much Harris’s strategy during the debate. Again and again, she set traps for Trump; again and again, he walked right into them.
[...]
Forced to play defense for much of the debate, Trump instinctively retreated to his comfort zone: immigration. No matter what the question was about, the former president found a way to accuse Harris — whom he inaccurately called Biden’s “border czar” — of “destroying the country” by allowing “millions of criminals” to pour into the country via Mexico.
Never mind that the best available data suggests the crime rate has fallen significantly over the past few years, down near the lowest levels ever recorded, and that numerous studies have found that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens. Trump has been running on the border for years, and he’s not about to stop now.
The moderators did okay. They did fact-check him a couple times, with one moderator saying "It is against the law in all 50 states to kill a child after it's born" (in response to tRumpy's claim that abortion doctors were "aborting" babies after they were born). The other moderator also shot down his claim that immigrants were eating pets. Yes, he actually made that claim on live TV during a nationally-televised debate.
On the other hand, they let tRumpy interrupt them, and gave him too many opportunities to respond, while not offering the same to Vice-President Harris (maybe they were playing rope-a-dope with him?)
The pièce de résistance came after the debate, when Taylor Swift posted a ringing endorsement of Kamala Harris. Whether or not you like her music, she has 200M followers on Instagram (mostly women of all ages) who are going to see that endorsement. Yes, that is big.
I assumed coming into this last night that she would be okay. She was far better than "okay", and he was much worse. I am looking forward to seeing how the polls react to the debate. It would be sadly telling if the needle hasn't moved because of it.
