I wasn't sure what to expect from the "presidential" debate. Gotta put "presidential" in quotes because Trump definitely didn't act that way. It was definitely entertaining though, and informative. Kamala got about 20% more specific on some of her policy proposals, which is needed. I think some of her critics are holding out for more details, but at the same time Trump is miles behind her in terms of offering specifics. When asked about his plan to replace Obamacare, he freely admitted that he has none, just "concepts of a plan." For a guy who ran on replacing it in 2016, that's "sad!"
Trump took a curious line of attack several times in the debate: "you've had three years, why haven't you accomplished [thing] in that time?!" There's all kinds of flawed logic and hypocrisy in that:
- Harris has been VP for 3 years, one of the weakest positions in any democracy. It's not the VP's responsibility to deliver the policy agenda; it's inherently a supporting role. WTF did Pence do? I bet Trump couldn't even name one major policy accomplishment of his own VP.
- Trump was president for 4 years. He had 4 years to make America great again, to build a wall on the Mexican border and to dismantle Obamacare. He did none of those things. The only plausible logic behind his core campaign message is that America is only great while he's president; that he made us great (while failing to deliver most of his policy commitments), then somehow Biden has ruined everything all over again, so we need a 2nd Trump term to make America great again, again.
- But, if the Biden/Harris administration has done nothing in 3 years, that would mean things are mostly as they were the day Trump left office. So they did nothing but they somehow ruined everything? Trump will tell you he's the greatest president ever, but somehow the incompetent do-nothing duo of Biden/Harris dismantled his great society? See how none of this makes sense?
For anyone who analyzes debates with a critical eye, Harris was clearly the expert and Trump the amateur. Her job last night was to layout her vision, and highlight Trump's special brand of crazy. I think she did both very well, though I would've liked to see her more confident, more assertive. That's probably a super tricky line for her to walk though. She knows she's smarter than him, she's a prosecutor talking to a goddam felon, but think about this: if she comes across too emotional, too anrgy, she gives independents on the fence an excuse to dismiss her as a "mad black woman" or remember how they liked to suggest Hillary was "hysterical." Take all the challenges women take on in professional settings and amplify it times 100, that's what it's like to be the first black woman VP. Be strong and confident but still polite and lady-like. Show how smart you are but don't attack the idiot in the room even if he is so obviously an idiot. She basically can't win on the sliders between confidence/poise/diplomacy/strength. In her mind, she knows it's super f-ed up that we're even in this scenario, that America is 50/50 split between a narcissist criminal liar who openly despises women and is losing his mind, and her. But she can't say that, or show it. She had to walk on that stage and pretend they're equals because sooooo many ignorant Americans are actually on the fence about which one of them to vote for. That must be maddening for her. In any other universe, Kamala Harris doesn't give Donald Trump 5 seconds of her time.
One of her most masterful moves, almost certainly rehearsed (with her excellent team), was her ability to manipulate him. It takes two to tango, but there's almost no way to paint Trump's response to the "you have small rallies" bait that looks good for him. Either he's super easy to manipulate (and all she did was open the door for it), which is a terrible quality for a president and every American should be scared wondering how easily Putin, Xi, or another world leader might manipulate the guy when they're in a room together. Or the alternative is that Trump isn't easy to manipulate at all and she's so skillful at it she could probably do the same with world leaders when she's president. Remember that Putin is ex-KGB. The guy is pretty smart on his own, and he's got literal spy training. You don't think he could make Trump dance like a marionette during a negotiation session for ... whatever?
The other thing Kamala accomplished with that move was campaign strategy #2: just let Trump be Trump, in front of an open mic on national TV. "Black criminal immigrants in Ohio are eating family pets all over town!" [gets fact-checked in real time by the moderator, responds with a classic Trump double-down] "I saw it on TV!" Remember, the initial question to Kamala was on immigration, a topic she's weak on. She was smart to work her deflection into that particular question; she gave a generic response to the immigration question, then brought up Trump's rallies. When the moderator tossed it over to Trump, he tried to steer the dialog back to immigration, an opportunity Trump could've/should've jumped on, EXCEPT there's no chance there was anything going in Trump's brain at that moment aside from a laser focus on "she's attacking my [fragile] ego, must respond, must respond." Dude is WEIRDLY obsessed with polls, attendance numbers, TV ratings - ANYTHING that suggests he's popular. That's all that matters to him, being popular, liked, admired, because he's such an obvious narcissist. This is key to why he doesn't care about the American people at all - he can't care about anyone or anything except himself, that's what narcissism is. He cares about populist policies if they make him more popular, sure, that's why he's switched his position on so many major issues - he'll say whatever gets his polling numbers up.
Given the opportunity to nail his opponent on her weakest issue, Trump missed, and instead offered up two ridiculous lies: Haitians are eating pets, and Kamala is hiring her crowds. I don't think any reasonable person, anyone with even a basic level of intellect who was sitting on the fence and watching the debate, hears that and says "yep, that's my guy."
Trump also can help himself when it comes to racism. He's taken so many openly racist stances over the years about blacks, Mexicans, native Americans, Muslims, it's truly hard to count. The insulting, dehumanizing language he regularly uses to talk about immigrants is hard to miss, and it was front and center last night. "Those people." But Trump locked up the racist vote in 2016 - why waste time in this debate reminding people you're racist? Not all Trump supporters are racist, to be clear, but there are exactly zero racists voting Harris/Walz. There are no racist voters who are on the fence about who they'll pick this fall.
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