There, I said it. Tuesday’s debate was the worst presidential debate in history. I half expected them to find chairs to bash the opponent. The World Wrestling Federation could not have engineered such a ridiculous melee.
Dana Bash of CNN called it “a s— show.”
George Stephanopoulos said: “That was the worst presidential debate I have ever seen in my life.”
MSNBC’ Nicolle Wallace said: “This felt like an assault. It felt like an assault on our senses. It felt like an assault on our presidential campaign process.”
Rachel Maddow said: “We’ve got two minutes forget that, I’m talking over you, neener, neener, neener, neener!”
You cannot blame the ref. Chris Wallace was in an impossible situation. The one thing he did prove was that he was not shilling for either campaign or Fox News. There were no Candy Crowley moments like when she helped President Obama answer a question in the 2012 debates.
I can be very objective in observing this because no matter your political views, some things are evident like there were no winners. Both men could have easily walked away with it. Here is how:
President Trump had a 3-year record of success to run on. Jobs, Economy, Judges, Lowest Black unemployment ever, more women were working, ever. Yes, he did mention those things while talking over his opponent and the moderator. It was not conveyed to voters.
He never took his two supposedly uninterrupted minutes to make any one point. It was death by a thousand sound bites. TV is his strong suit, and he blew it.
Vice President Biden only had to do one thing. Be more Presidential than Donald Trump. He miscalculated by trying to be the big man who stood toe to toe with the President.
He played the Presidents’ game and came out looking just as bad. Seriously, he could have stood there and reminisced about his years with President Obama, avoided every question and every jab from the President, and won walking away.
The contrast alone would have swung enough of the ten people who haven’t made up their minds to make the election difference. But now we will never know.
The nonpartisan fact-checkers really earned their pay on Tuesday and Wednesday, calling out whoppers and splitting hairs. The partisan fact-checkers simply went into spin mode.
For instance, no one really believes the President only paid 750 dollars in taxes the year before he became President, but since he didn’t take the opportunity to say how much actually paid, he lost the issue.
The accusation that Joe Bidens son received a 3.5 million dollar transfer from the former first lady of Moscow, Yelena Baturina was vehemently denied by the former VP. Still, bank records showed that Baturina wired $3.5 million to a bank account controlled by Rosemont Seneca Thornton, LLC, a firm that Biden incorporated in 2013.
Viewers didn’t hear or understand the accusation over all of the screamings back and forth, and Biden yelling for the President of the United States to “shut up.”
What did we learn that we may not have known. Surprisingly a few things did come through. Now we know who the Democrat party is, for instance.
When President Trump said, “Your party wants to go socialist medicine, and socialist health care, and they’re going to dominate you, Joe. You know that,” Biden replied forcefully, “The party is me. Right now, I am the Democratic Party. I am the Democratic Party right now,”
The former Vice President, the self-proclaimed leader of the party, put himself at odds with its loudest voices by declaring, I’m totally opposed to defunding the police officers.” Polls show the defund movement has little support. Biden, like Trump, is on the right side of this issue.
If he is the singular power in the democrat party, he needs to reign in all of the democrat “renegades,” like his VP pick, who are far outflanking him on the left. I expect this will be walked back.
Is it possible that both men will retool their debate strategy before the next debate if there is one? It is certainly possible. Maybe two civilized men will show up and give us a vision for the future. Maybe two statesmen will show up and be examples of civil discourse and agree to disagree.
The great philosopher and purveyor of logic, Mr. Spock, observed, “It is far easier for a civilized man to act like a barbarian than for them as barbarians to act like a civilized man.” Spin that as you wish!
