Debate Post-Mortem

Yeah, I watched the debate last night. I can’t help it. Watching politics is baked into who I am. I did forget to pop my popcorn, but I’ve seen reports that Harris is asking for a second debate which means I have more popcorn for that, if it comes to pass. Okay, let’s get down to my post-mortem.

First off, yes, it was a three on one debate. Even MSNBC host Nicole Wallace admitted that the moderators “played an important role” in the debate. Bear in mind, in an actual debate, the mods are there to pose questions and throw out time calls. They are most assuredly NOT there to challenge and perform their own debates with any of the candidates, which David Muir and Linsey Davis did. I thought that given he was simultaneously debating and responding to three people, Trump did pretty well. I do wish he’d lose the verbal tics such as “People who work for me have said – I have many fine people, lots of people…” But, it’s a tic and it’s part of him.

Harris spent a lot of time making weird faces and she sounded like an annoyed, arrogant school marm, and not a possible president. She worked her way through her range of emotions from A to B: either sneering and laughing or attempting to choke up with emotion. That was her focus, not the questions – which, btw, she didn’t ever answer. She kept talking about an “opportunity economy” without ever explaining what that is or how she would “create” it. She also failed to respond to any question asking why she hasn’t done any of these things in the last three and a half years when she’s already holding the second highest office in the country.

It was only in his closing remarks that Trump made the point that Harris has had three and a half years to fix the problems she says the country faces (and the problems that frankly, she helped to create). I thought he should have started his answer to every question with that comment. Hammer that home.

Harris has the ability to fix things NOW. Why is she waiting?

As Scott Adams has noted, the first rule of facing the media is if you are asked a question you don’t like, answer the question you want. In other words, take in the question, and then go off to make the point you like, not the one your questioner wants. Harris did that, as did Trump. However, the mods continually tried to press Trump for yes or no answers where they did not do the same thing with Harris. Linsey Davis did ask Harris about Afghanistan and the disastrous withdrawal, but Harris never even mentioned it, other than to say she agreed with Biden regarding the need to withdraw. Harris never mentioned the troops killed defending that FUBAR’d withdrawal. (Probably didn’t want to because that would bring up her and Biden’s failure to attend the ceremony at Arlington – the ceremony which they and the press excoriated Trump for attending. Because everyone is just supposed to forget the sacrifice of those soldiers?)

I had been hoping that Trump could push Harris’ buttons enough that she’d go off on one of her infamous word salad responses, but that didn’t happen. However, the sneering, snide, and condescending looks and tone she took were pretty awful. Clearly she’d been well-trained and well-briefed on body language and tone, rather than actual answers. She kept talking about having a plan, but never elaborated on said plan. And I know that expression and tone mean more to Democrats than they do to the rest of us. Yes, tone tells us a lot about how someone views the statement or question, but tone is not an actual policy. We never heard what her much touted plan would cover and what would be the intended result. She also never answered Linsey Davis’ question about all of her flip-flops on fracking, the border, Obama care, etc. and Davis didn’t press her either… again.

Harris pulled out all the tropes of “convicted felon,” “fine people on both sides,” “suckers and losers,” etc. Those statements are truly tropes for the Democrats even though, aside from convicted (for things every single freaking accountant does), all those statements have been shown to be false and a manipulation of actual events. But the truth of events never stopped Democrats from spinning them their way before, so I didn’t expect it to stop them now.

Additionally, Harris never responded directly to any questions regarding the border or her support for partial-birth abortions. She accused Trump of lying about states with legalized partial birth abortions as well. Minnesota does have a law, that Walz has said he’s proud of, where in a botched partial birth abortion where the baby is born alive, medical personnel leave the baby alone and see if it lives or dies. These are medical personnel who take a freaking oath to save lives. Virginia and California also have legalized and supported partial-birth abortions.

For the border issue, Harris completely disregarded her role and complicity in the current swarm of illegal migrants crossing into this country through our southern border, and recently, even through our northern border. She tried to argue that almost doubling the population of a town by importing illegal migrants was not a problem.

I have seen reports that the Harris campaign is asking for a second debate, which is likely an indicator that they don’t think she did well. Polls this morning are showing an upward move for Trump which is not what the Harris camp wants.

As I expected, Harris’ entire debate performance was bad, and as expected, the media will now spin it as a win. I do think that any independents watching might have been put off by Harris’ attitude (expressions and tone), but I don’t think they’re going to vote for Trump. They’re more likely to stay home, which, of course, is a good thing for Trump.

Don’t listen to the media, but pay attention, and don’t get cocky. This ain’t over, but I’d say it’s not looking good for Harris.