Trump was a steamroller.
Red faced and belligerent, Trump interrupted and heckled and took charge of the night.
Trump's debate performance was no accident.
We start with a premise that Donald Trump knew what he was doing. Trump meant to interrupt and talk over Biden, meant to badger Biden and get him sputtering with frustration, meant to tie Biden up in knots and get him to say something stupid or weak or spitting mad, and to make a gaffe.
Overall the game plan was for Trump to be the rule-breaking alpha male. It worked. Trump dominated the room.
He dominated the room the way an angry screaming three-year-old does. Wallace and Biden were the parents, frustrated and helpless. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't a "food fight" or a "wrestling match." That would imply that Wallace and Biden were there to slug back and did so effectively. They didn't. Biden and Wallace were over-matched.
What could Trump have been thinking?
Maybe Trump is thinking this is a base election and all about turnout. Belligerent Trump may thrill his supporters, but the important job last night was to de-motivate progressives. There are more young leftists up for grabs than there are suburban soccer mom undecided voters. Trump wasn't looking to make friends. He was looking to turn Biden's reluctant progressive friends into non-voters.
Trump repeatedly accused Biden of being a tool of the crazy, job-killing, socialist, police-hating far left. Trump dared him to deny it, and Biden did just that. Trump got Biden to say that he did not support AOC's Green New Deal, or socialism, or defunding the police. Biden sounded like a moderate--a soft spoken, unassertive one.
Biden attempted to speak directly to the audience, ignoring Trump. That part came across as sincere and earnest. He was constantly interrupted and made to look helpless in getting out his message. No Bernie-loving progressive could come away confident that Biden will be able to implement a progressive agenda. He couldn't even get three sentences out. How could he get laws passed?
Or maybe Trump has a different thought.
Maybe Trump is thinking the election has already been lost at the ballot box, so there is no option other than belligerent rule breaking.
In politics and life, you take what you can.
Trump communicates profound distrust of the upcoming election, raising the prospect it will be settled amid civil unrest, by the courts, not by counting votes. He is adamant that mailed votes are likely fraudulent, rigged by Democrats to steal the election, at least in swing states, and he specifically pointed to Pennsylvania. His campaign has filed numerous lawsuits to confound mail voting. Trump is laying the predicate for demanding that mailed votes be impounded, disallowed, not counted, or be counted in methods that are too slow to finish on time to render a decision. Amid delays, and violent demonstrations, friendly federal courts would decide a disputed election in his favor. That's the plan outlined in The Atlantic, and which Chris Wallace addressed.
Chris Wallace gave a softball pitch, asking each candidate to assure voters that each would respect the will of the people. Biden said, of course.
Trump said the opposite. He said that the upcoming election was already fraudulent, that he was being cheated, that mail ballots cannot be trusted. Chris Wallace asked Trump what he meant when he said "Bad things happen in Philadelphia."
Trump said, "I'll tell you what it means. It means you have a fraudulent election."
Trump said he expected violence from "antifa and the left" and that he wanted White paramilitary support groups to "stand back and stand by" having a presence at voting venues, ready to get involved in the upcoming conflict. Trump is coaching civil unrest in an election he already calls illegitimate. Tuesday's debate wasn't the "shit show" news anchors used to describe the event. The "shit show" comes on election night and thereafter. This is the preview.
Trump's debate performance was a clear signal that the election is not about policy choices. That would take place in a normal presidential debate. Trump sees the election as a cage fight, with no rules other than winning. You don't win cage fights with nice words and decorum. If you can talk during the other candidate's time, you do it. If a supposed referee tries to stop you, ignore him. It is about power. That is the way of the world, now and always. If he doesn't get the votes, he will win by not counting the votes. He can, so he will.
Only the naive think otherwise.
11 comments:
First of all, calling it a debate demeans the term, and it was pretty much what I expected, only worse.
I don't feel that Biden improved his position by showing up, and there is a strong argument to cancel any more of these exhibitions rather than continue giving them them undeserved legitimacy. I certainly won't bother watching another. This has devolved into a base election, and giving Trump a hitherto respected frame to spout lies and conspiracy theories serves no purpose.
What I had hoped to see was a well prepared Biden, able to quickly and effectively counter with facts what they must have known was coming. Maybe no opponent could have dealt with the firehose of bulls**t, but Biden seemed to be unable to do much more than laugh uneasily with a "can you believe this?" demeanor that Trump supporters will relish. It's their tactic, what they call "winning".
Trump won, but it wasn't a debate...it was a drunken Saturday night mud wrestling match at derelict biker bar somewhere outside of bumf**k nowhere.
2016 had hidden Trump voters. Those hidden Trump voters will not vote for Trump again. Biden will win the election in a landslide if it is a fair one. I agree Trump’s only chance is to be an illegitimate president, one that would lead to great civil unrest. Trump May take down the whole country. Way to go racist hating republicans you are on your way to destroying America.
Trump perhaps won the vote of those who want a three year old as the President. Biden won the the vote of those who want an adult as the President.
Anyone who has ever had a three year old knows that when they are in the throes of a tantrum sometimes all you can do is throw them in a room and give them a time out, or perhaps a stronger dose of sedatives.
Neither option was open to Chris Wallace or Joe Biden.
5he Joe Biden I saw was a man who had maturity, intelligence, self assurance and phenomenal self control. I imagine most of those watching were amazed that Joe didn’t just walk across the podium and punch the jerk in the nose.
View from a conservative that is as black on America as I can imagine, except to “progressives” who will be rooting for soft totalitarianism, long on the march. Brutal on Trump in the debate. One funny line.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/
trump's debate skills have not gotten any better in 4 years, they have gotten worse.
Last night's show was an embarrassment to most Americans and will do trump no good.
Another dark day in our history.
Biden will handily win this election and it will be called before 9:00 pm on Nov. 3rd. trump will have to pack up his make-up kit and leave the White House when the time comes.
They have switches on the microphones. they should have used them.
It would be good if Biden could come back at Trump’s acts of verbal aggression with some sharp and cutting New York City style repartee. Unfortunately, I don’t think Biden has it in him, and the weak, embarrassed smile he sometimes deployed didn’t particularly cut it.
My guess is that the debate will not have moved any significant number of voters.
When you are judging a presidential debate with Apprentice or Dancing with the Stars agency, as many people tend to, Trump won. Sadly, this wasn't DWTS. It was actual reality, where people actually die when idiots run things poorly.
Idiotcracy comes to America, and what a show! Thanks Don! You were AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where's my remote? I lost my remote!
I think Chris Wallace went out afterwards for a double scotch and a beer chaser.
Watching my grandson and granddaughter take their classes on line gave me an idea. How about a Zoom debate? A moderator could switch between Trump and Biden. The debaters would be in different neutral rooms in remote locations. The sidetalk would be eliminated. The Bullying would look silly and stupid. The questions and topics could and should be the same for both candidates. Talking over and monopolizing the mic would be eliminated. What do you all think? I think it might force them to stay on topic or ramble away like they did but the candidates could not interrupt the person talking. That would have been so wonderful last night.
You are right saying Trump's strategy is to make people feel so disgusted about politics they will give up and just not vote. However, I wonder how many fragile voters were actually watching this debate? I know several who said they have made up their mind to vote for Biden and won't "do politics" anymore.
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