Muda69 Posted September 11, 2024 Posted September 11, 2024 I didn't watch. Really have zero interest in watching uni-party narcissists pontificate about how they would just perpetuate big government and attack the other candidate, mostly on "issues" that are really about as important to the nation as a whole as what color underwear they put on every morning. That said, browsing MSM headlines this morning in appears they have declared Ms. Harris the "winner". Still reading more analysis and "hot takes" from both sides of the uni-party, but this one seems about on par. From an email newsletter: Quote You know I hate to say it, but Kamala Harris won this debate — or to be more precise, Trump lost it. Why? MAGA is telling itself that it’s because the ABC News moderators were in the tank for Harris, which they certainly were. They repeatedly “fact-checked” Trump, but let her get away with some whoppers (e.g, linking Trump to Project 2025, the “fine people on both sides” lie). David Muir’s big question about race in America was not about DEI, which would have been substantive, but about whether Trump stands by his earlier sh*t-talking questioning of whether or not Harris is black. And yet — over and over again, Trump missed opportunities to capitalize on these things. He could have easily gone after the Democrats’ racist, unjust, and unpopular DEI policies. He could have easily pointed out that Kamala embraced the Jussie Smollett hoax, and never met a woke race idea that she didn’t like. But Trump did not do those things. On Ukraine, there is a simple argument to be made against US policy towards Ukraine. Trump did not make it. Instead, he blustered about how he would end the war even before he becomes president. He made it all about him. America’s Ukraine policy has failed, but Trump’s lack of focus allowed her to say, “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now…with his eyes on the rest of Europe” — and sound credible. Don’t misread me: this is not credible in fact, but it sounds credible, and I’m sure lots of people watching at home thought that she sounded normal while he sounded kind of unhinged. On the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, Harris dodged the question of the Biden administration’s responsibility. Did Trump go in for the kill? Nope, he jabbered on with some anecdote about a Taliban leader named Abdul. At one point, Trump’s jabbering sounded like my Twitter feed. Instead of hammering her repeatedly on her weakest issue, immigration and the open border, he wasted time talking about Haitians eating pets. On the January 6 question, he went down the rabbit hole and talked about Ashli Babbitt, the protester shot dead when she tried to climb through broken glass on a door, to reach the House floor. No disrespect to Ashli Babbitt, but who, outside of MAGA social media, remembers her today? Trump surely knew this issue was going to come up, but he was not prepared. Kamala quite effectively baited Trump into getting lost by answering every personal slight, and bragging about himself, how supposedly respected he is around the world, how big his rallies are, and so forth. All the time he ate up talking about himself was time not spent going after her far-left record, and the failures of this administration. It is certainly true that ABC’s moderators came off as in the tank for Harris, but if Team Trump tells itself that that’s the reason she won tonight, they’re lying to themselves. It was an overall win for Harris because her telegenic performance raised her stature, made her look serious. Prior to her abrupt presidential campaign, Harris was widely and correctly thought to be a lightweight. She benefited from the media honeymoon after Biden’s withdrawal, but the most recent polls indicate her rise has stalled. With this debate, she re-introduced herself as someone solid and reliable. Understand me clearly: I do not think she is either solid or reliable. I’m talking about the way she came across on TV — especially her focus, versus Trump’s incoherence. Trump is usually like that, but I see now that he seemed like a model of clarity only up against senile Joe Biden. Against Harris, nope — the reverse happened. Plus, it frustrates me to no end that Trump left the stage with so many shots at her untaken. After a while I just tuned out his garrulous rambling and bragging — and I’m voting for the guy! I wonder how many undecideds, if they exist, had their votes moved by tonight. Seems to me the biggest missed opportunity for Trump was to appeal to moderates and independents who are alienated from the Democrats by things like DEI and Title IX ruining women’s sports by mandating transgender participation. There were no questions about that, but Trump could have brought it up. Why didn’t he? The moderators, naturally, didn’t bring up the transgender issue. But why didn’t Trump, who managed to pack in all kinds of issues in his meandering answers? Does he not understand that this is a winning issue for Republicans, given how all-in the Biden-Harris administration has been for transing kids (even over parents’ objections!), putting biological males on school sports teams, and the like? Maybe it won’t really matter. A fellow despairing conservative friend back in the US texted to remind me that Hillary Clinton was perceived as the winner of the 2016 debates. I seem to recall that Al Gore was thought to have bested George W. Bush in their debates. It’s just that with this race so very, very close, it ticks me off that Trump had so many easy opportunities to attack Harris tonight, but could barely land a punch. Trump’s closing statement was fairly strong, but he barely mentioned Kamala’s Achilles heel: the border. As bad as ABC’s moderating was, that’s not their fault. As a cousin of mine messaged me this morning: Quote She's an excellent anger. He took the bait every time.
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