"Never let them see you sweat."
Advertising slogan, Gillette's Dry Idea anti- perspirant
Trump returned to form. He went into an extended rant. He sweated.
At 27 minutes after the hour, Kamala Harris said Trump's rallies were poorly attended and that people left early "out of boredom and exhaustion."
Trump was hooked.
He looked desperate. He was a salesman who had to meet a sales quota and he would say anything -- anything! -- to close the sale before the customer left the sales floor.
Lindsey Graham called Trump's performance "a disaster." Fox News hosts admitted it, too. Trump advisor Stephen Miller and Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida look glum going into the spin room to defend Trump.
Meanwhile, Democrats are giddy.
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| Huffington Post |
The Wall Street Journal's editorial pages are universally understood to be Republican-oriented, but even Kyle Peterson, a member of their editorial board could not ignore the obvious:
“We have the biggest rallies,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s because people want to take their country back.” The U.S., he continued, is a failing nation. “You’re going to end up in World War III, just to go into another subject.” In Ohio, immigrants are eating people’s dogs and cats, “they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” (Moderator: “The Springfield city manager says there’s no evidence of that.”)
Mr. Trump went on to say that the FBI’s crime statistics are “a fraud,” and the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs numbers are “a fraud,” and the 2020 election was, yes, still a fraud, and “they should have sent it back to the legislatures.” About the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, he regrets nothing. Then World War III again. What of this is supposed to reassure suburbanites who worry that Mr. Trump is too erratic to put back in the Oval Office?
The followup news and commentary about the debate will be that Trump melted down and Harris did well. It may not be enough to secure victory for Harris. Trump's incompetence meant that Harris never got pressed hard on the issues that trouble swing state marginal voters. Harris did not face a back-and-forth on fracking sufficient to make voters in Pennsylvania know, for sure, that she won't end it by regulating it into impracticability. Trump did not challenge her directly enough on immigration to assure voters that she will do something about it and not cave -- as Biden did for two and a half years -- to forces within the Democratic coalition that consider border enforcement cruel and unjust. She never had to persuade people she has an economic plan she could defend against an opponent's criticism.
Trump's incompetence has that silver lining for him.
I expect Trump's campaign will stop calling Harris low-IQ. She looked smarter and more mentally sound than did Trump. If mental fitness is the issue, Harris wins big. Trump's campaign will redirect the attack to saying she is a San Francisco Marxist, trying to hide it with a smile and gauzy generalities.Trump may be a whack job, but Harris hasn't yet assured voters she isn't dangerous in a different way. She still has work to do. But this was a very good night for her.
24 comments:
I don’t think Americans have ever been presented with such a clear contrast between candidates. Hopeful vs hopeless. Critics of Harris may cite her lack of specificity to any plan. But do they hold Trump to the same standard? Finger-snap and all wars will be over. Easy.
should I fear possible leftish economic policies over ceding control of my country to a dictator? He did not even attempt to deny his aspiration to be one, in fact he invoked Erdogan as a character reference.
I’m hopeful the contrast opened the eyes of the undecided. Who in their right mind would choose such a mad man? It can’t be because of his policies because he has only one: to satisfy his unquenchable appetite for absolute power.
It was less a debate than an exchange of speechlettes and slogans. But Harris was poised and energetic, and her words were coherent and at least moderately specific. Trump managed to seem both abrasive AND weary, and his words were largely unsupported, overheated conclusions. (“Every legal scholar” wanted Roe overturned and abortion rights returned to the states? Pure crapola.). Trump didn’t come off quite as badly as Biden’s debate debacle, but his comprehensive defeat was of a similar order of magnitude.
I had high expectations for Harris, and she exceeded them. Trump looked like what he is – an angry, demented old man who couldn’t answer the questions with anything but the same litany of stupid lies he spews at rallies. He even repeated that asinine tale about Haitian migrants eating people’s pets (not that he’s racist or anything), Anybody who could watch his performance and still think he belongs in our nation’s highest office would have to be as crazy and pathetic as Trump.
The ABC moderators were biased as hell. They fact-checked Trump numerous times, while they never fact-checked Harris, and she lied and lied and lied. Truly, it was an embarrassment for "homer" ABC. They lost the respect of half the country.
When the pets being eaten line came out, I really started enjoying the debate, laughing and joking with my friends via texts. If competence matters, the election is decided. It will be close, but if the debate really matters then Harris will be president. I’m hoping for another one as Trump is incapable of not being hooked. In prison it’s referred to as selling wolf tickets and Trump got ensnared in a wolf trap. Poor victim Trump has to go with the moderators weren’t fair as his excuse for losing. Poor, poor Trump it wasn’t his fault he lost.
Pray tell, from behind the curtain, exactly what lies did Vice President Harris tell. It certainly wasn't about people in Ohio eating cats and dogs, or Minnesotans snorting babies after they're born. Enlighten us, invisible one, maybe even show your name, unless your as cowardly as Trump.
Incidentally, Anonymous, they didn't fact check every lie he told, because he was lying every time they turned on his microphone.
Harris demonstrated before the whole country how easily Trump is manipulated due to his narcisssism and vanity, which is precisely why he can’t be trusted as Commander in Chief. You know your side lost when you’re whining about the refs, and it’s silly to complain about the refs when you can’t hit a basic jump shot.
On issues, the only one that matters eventually is abortion. Harris was forceful. Trump was the flip flopper: every state gets to decide and that’s what everyone wanted so we’re united. Right.
On style, can you imagine any time a black woman gets to call a white man, let alone a former President, weak? Only in 21st century America. You’ve come a long way, baby - and just saying it makes it so.
That wasn’t a debate, it was a performance. You can’t debate a compulsive liar. Harris’ performance was composed and rational. Trump’s was the usual: Raging Bullshit.
Anonymous, I am not aware of any lies from Kamala Harris. Can you point them out?
Since Trump surrounds himself with sycophants and everyone in his circle is afraid of his temper if they say something he doesn't like, I am wondering if this is the first time in his life that anyone spoke to him so directly and forcefully.
Losers blame the refs.
Harris looked Presidential. Don Old looked pathetic.
VP Harris didn't point out specifically that Don Old surrendered to terrorists. She needed to call him a patsy, as that is what he is.
Anyone undecided now is either lying or a moron.
Lying morons ?
I saw some interviews with a couple of "Undecided" panels.
Samantha Bee said it best some time ago.
"How do you people even dress yourselves?"
Jennifer, I asked the same question and Anonymous at 6:53 A M. seems to have left the room.
Mc, I saw that on Five Dolts on a Divan (FAUX &Friends) he claimed that she obviously had gotten access to the questions, and besides, he had done so well that it wouldn't be necessary to have a second Debate.
Even Brit Hume if FAUX NOOZ said it was a disastrous appearance by the Talking Mango.
A Springfield, Ohio, resident on his way to work called 911 to report spotting four Haitian migrants snatching geese near a city park just two weeks ago, according to a newly revealed recording.
The call to a Clark County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher, obtained by the Federalist, appears to support a viral claim about some members of the migrant community eating animals in city parks.
Former President Donald Trump blasted the story into the mainstream Tuesday night when he claimed migrants in Springfield were “eating the dogs.”
“I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of them, they all had geese in their hand,” the caller told a dispatcher.
He said the group — two men and two women — were each clutching one of the birds when they took off in a gray Toyota Tacoma truck. The caller gave a portion of their license plate he was able to make out.
Last night was certainly a huge win for Democrats, but it’s an ongoing tragedy for the U.S. that such a lawless madman remains the presidential nominee of a major political party and that so many want him in the White House instead of in the Big House where he belongs. Has our country always been this crazy?
To summarize: The Federalist (a far-right purveyor of disinformation) claims Haitians were kidnapping geese, and although the Springfield police and mayor deny it, you think that supports Trump’s claim they’re eating our pets? I can see why you’d be embarrassed to use your name.
I think was Mark Twain who said a lie can get halfway around the world before the gets it's its shoes tied.
Maybe faster with the Internet and all the gullible fools who have access to the Web.
Don Old is a Patsy.
The gullible fools are missing after TFG's butt-whooping!
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