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So, about that debate…
Sep. 11th, 2024 08:22 amI missed the first few minutes, but watched most of the debate, and a few minutes of TV news “analysis”, then walked the dogs and got back in time for Colbert‘s take.
Some of the “news analysis” was based on “what I’m hearing from Democratic campaign officials,” who are of course paid to say she won; they were crafting their talking point wording days before the debate. I don’t need to hear that; I want to hear, perhaps, from non-partisan analysts with specifics about what actually happened.
There were a number of places where I thought Harris could have been cleaner, punchier, more specific than she was. She dodged some questions in areas where she was vulnerable, and where I thought a good answer could have been given.
But she succeeded, again and again, in baiting Trump into being his own worst enemy.
On immigration, an area where she’s vulnerable, she needled him into long conspiracy-theory rants about crowd sizes rather than pushing his case against her, and later into another rant about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating the locals’ pets. The moderators fact-checked the latter.
On abortion, an area where he’s vulnerable, she needled him into a rant about post-birth abortion, and saying about ten times “I’ve been a leader in fertilization,” apparently for his willingness to follow the Alabama legislature when they walked back the politically-suicidal IVF decision. The moderators fact-checked the former.
On crime, he repeated his usual claim that crime has skyrocketed during the Biden administration (the moderators fact-checked that, and he said the FBI was reporting fraudulent numbers, and that Biden administration job numbers are also fraudulent), and said repeatedly that crime is down all over the world because 168 other countries are shipping their criminals to the US.
A moderator pointed out that in recent weeks he’s finally admitted that he lost the 2020 election; he denied saying that, then explained that “it was said sarcastically” and in fact he did win the 2020 election, the evidence of Democratic fraud is overwhelming and all his court cases challenging it were thrown out for lack of standing. The moderator repeatedly asked “Is there anything you regret about your actions on January 6?”, hinting at some possible answers he could give, and he replied with the bizarre “I had nothing to do with that; they asked me to give a speech,” then accused Nancy Pelosi of refusing his offer of National Guard troops, then accused a Capitol police officer of gross misconduct in shooting a rioter as she broke into the House chamber, then complained that his “peaceful, patriotic” protesters had been prosecuted while BLM rioters in Seattle and Minneapolis hadn’t been.
One of his “answers” amounted to accusing Joe Biden and his son Hunter of receiving millions of dollars from China and Ukraine and the wife of the mayor of Moscow, and that’s why Biden is so “weak” in negotiating with those countries. I don’t know that there’s any evidence of that actually happening, but… No mention of his own family’s much more extensive financial dealings with China and Russia.
Oh, and she said dictators like Putin, Xi, and Kim are all rooting for him because they know they can manipulate him with favors and flattery; Putin “would eat you for lunch”. (I don’t remember his response.) And demonstrated the point by manipulating his fragile ego herself, for over an hour.
Some of the “news analysis” was based on “what I’m hearing from Democratic campaign officials,” who are of course paid to say she won; they were crafting their talking point wording days before the debate. I don’t need to hear that; I want to hear, perhaps, from non-partisan analysts with specifics about what actually happened.
There were a number of places where I thought Harris could have been cleaner, punchier, more specific than she was. She dodged some questions in areas where she was vulnerable, and where I thought a good answer could have been given.
But she succeeded, again and again, in baiting Trump into being his own worst enemy.
On immigration, an area where she’s vulnerable, she needled him into long conspiracy-theory rants about crowd sizes rather than pushing his case against her, and later into another rant about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating the locals’ pets. The moderators fact-checked the latter.
On abortion, an area where he’s vulnerable, she needled him into a rant about post-birth abortion, and saying about ten times “I’ve been a leader in fertilization,” apparently for his willingness to follow the Alabama legislature when they walked back the politically-suicidal IVF decision. The moderators fact-checked the former.
On crime, he repeated his usual claim that crime has skyrocketed during the Biden administration (the moderators fact-checked that, and he said the FBI was reporting fraudulent numbers, and that Biden administration job numbers are also fraudulent), and said repeatedly that crime is down all over the world because 168 other countries are shipping their criminals to the US.
A moderator pointed out that in recent weeks he’s finally admitted that he lost the 2020 election; he denied saying that, then explained that “it was said sarcastically” and in fact he did win the 2020 election, the evidence of Democratic fraud is overwhelming and all his court cases challenging it were thrown out for lack of standing. The moderator repeatedly asked “Is there anything you regret about your actions on January 6?”, hinting at some possible answers he could give, and he replied with the bizarre “I had nothing to do with that; they asked me to give a speech,” then accused Nancy Pelosi of refusing his offer of National Guard troops, then accused a Capitol police officer of gross misconduct in shooting a rioter as she broke into the House chamber, then complained that his “peaceful, patriotic” protesters had been prosecuted while BLM rioters in Seattle and Minneapolis hadn’t been.
One of his “answers” amounted to accusing Joe Biden and his son Hunter of receiving millions of dollars from China and Ukraine and the wife of the mayor of Moscow, and that’s why Biden is so “weak” in negotiating with those countries. I don’t know that there’s any evidence of that actually happening, but… No mention of his own family’s much more extensive financial dealings with China and Russia.
Oh, and she said dictators like Putin, Xi, and Kim are all rooting for him because they know they can manipulate him with favors and flattery; Putin “would eat you for lunch”. (I don’t remember his response.) And demonstrated the point by manipulating his fragile ego herself, for over an hour.
