Conservative friends kept telling me that Trump would kick Biden’s ass in a debate. That’s why Biden kept ducking him all that time. It wasn’t that he was frightened of catching the virus or that some independent commission kept changing the rules to increase safety. It was that Biden didn’t want to face Trump. He was intimidated by his brilliance.
Well, last night we got to bask in the glow of Trump’s brilliance. They cut off mics and let the candidates speak, so his brilliance was on full display. He managed not to act completely like a petulant toddler, so I suppose we saw Trump at his very best. Interesting that he released video of a 60 minutes interview on the same day. Both were illuminating.
In terms of the debate, Trump’s strength is repetition. He managed to slam home the same two or three points throughout the evening. Of course, as the 60 minutes video showed us, there were few details. I guess he’s leaving that to someone else. His job is to “Make America Great Again.”
So, let’s consider these one by one.
“Joe Biden has been here 47 years and he still couldn’t get it done.”
That’s a nice line if you utter it once or twice. When you bust it out ten times or 20 times it leads to a few questions. First, who is the incumbent? I know that’s an awfully big word, so let me rephrase it. Who has been in the White House the last three years and change? Oh, that’s right it’s Trump. Why isn’t he defending his own record? There was some of that. He tried to tell us how opportunity zones, criminal justice reform, and prison reform makes him the best president for African Americans since Abraham Lincoln. Oh, wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The second problem with the above is that it thoroughly demonstrates that he has no idea of how Washington works. He seems to think a single man can wave a magic wand and just make everything the way its supposed to be. You just do it through sheer force of will. Then, things like the Crime Bill get turned around and laid on one man’s door step. It’s a shocking double standard but true to form in that it isn’t the work of 535 men and women. It’s all supposed to be one guy.
Joe Biden has taken money from every major foreign power. The Bidens are the most corrupt political family in history.
This is what psychologists call projection. It is basically the central theme of Trump campaign. Take what we do and turn it around and accuse the other side of doing it. The fascination with Hunter Biden is unsettling. Let’s say Hunter is shady. Let’s say he did take advantage of his situation. Let’s say he does have a massive drug problem. Hunter Biden is not on the ballot and even those shady news stories that Trump used to peddle this garbage had shaky to zero connection to Joe Biden. So all he succeeded in doing is in making Hunter Biden look bad. Great, I won’t vote for him.
All at the same time we are supposed to ignore that Trump has a daughter that has taken advantage of her position in the White House to get trade deals with China for her products. Her husband has profited more off the opportunity zones mentioned earlier than everyone. All three adult children have been involved in the Trump Foundation that has proven to be a criminal enterprise. Meanwhile, if Donald Jr. doesn’t have a large scale drug problem he certainly is self-medicating through the end of the campaign.
“I’m the least racist person in this room.”
Last night was a great one for those playing debate bingo. We had all of the one-liners from the past four years. He also told us he would release his taxes as soon as the audit is over. Thank God we didn’t make a drinking game out of it. This line is by far the most hilarious though. Of course, it’s hilarity is only true in the sense that few believe it.
I say few because I still see folks on Facebook that try to argue that he isn’t racist. It’s all been debunked they say. I’m not sure that word means what they think it means. They are exactly like him. They don’t provide proof that it has been debunked. They just assert it as fact and move on. They are probably following some kind of old-fashioned debate rules where if you assert something loudly enough and often enough then it becomes fact when the opposition just grows tired of your bullshit and leaves you alone.
The evidence is just too overwhelming to really get into. He couldn’t even acknowledge that parents and children were being separated at the border. He didn’t have an answer as to how he was going to reunify families. All those kids were being brought over by coyotes he said.
Who knows what is exactly in his heart. Maybe he doesn’t hate black people or Hispanic people. Maybe he’s just willing to use other’s hate for black people and Hispanics to get himself elected. Maybe he just denigrates them to make you feel better about yourself. After all, if drug smugglers are bringing ALL of the kids over, then we don’t feel so bad about them being in cages. Oh, did you know those cages were built during prior administrations? Certainly building the cage is far worse than actually using it right?
“We are going to protect preexisting…”
In typical word salad fashion, Trump seems incapable of even finishing the phrase. In his 60 Minutes Interview you could hear America’s question in the background. How? How? How? How? How? How? That’s one of the two or three major themes of this whole campaign. He doesn’t know how. He seems to live in this alternative universe where you can simply wish things and they would become true.
I don’t want the ACA but I want to protect preexisting conditions. Except it is the ACA that calls for the protection of preexisting conditions. He supplied 60 minutes with a thick book of empty pages. Those were the plans to replace the ACA. Empty pages. Give him this. He sure can supply a pretty powerful symbol.
Ask him about the virus and he still seems to be uttering the same thing he uttered in the spring. It will all go away. It was supposed to go away when it got warmer. It didn’t. Maybe it will go away when it gets colder. Either way he is still saying it. So, his plan appears to be that someone else will do something. A miracle will happen. Big pharma will do it out of the kindness of their hearts. They will produce a vaccine and roll it out to hundreds of millions of people. You’ll see.
Add it all up
If a debate is the triumph of style over substance then I guess you could claim he won the debate. Biden spent the majority of the time trying to correct the record and explain why Trump’s oversimplications were incorrect. I suppose it is a strategy that works on some level. If you spew enough crap then you force your opponent to spend the majority of their time addressing it.
As a debater your choices are to ignore the crap and just talk to the American people, block every piece of crap thrown at you, or find your own crap to throw at him. Biden tried all three last night. Maybe he would have been better off picking one and sticking with it. I suspect it doesn’t matter. Nearly 50 million people have voted nationwide and those that haven’t have largely made up their minds.
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