When I play chess online with opponents from all over the world, it is possible to get an impartial evaluation of the game afterwards from the computer that in less than a minute will assess every move. The computer analysis not only tracks who has the edge after each move but also evaluates each move. It lists moves that are merely inaccuracies, others that are mistakes, and others that are definitely game losing blunders.
Blunders can be of two kinds. You can either make a really bad move that should result in certain defeat, or fail to capitalize on an equally bad move by your opponent. Failure to take advantage of an opponent’s blunder is often devastating. Of course, in the heat of battle, you always try to make good moves but inevitably the computer analysis will show a number of mistakes and even blunders.
I can’t be as impartial as a computer but I would like to point out some of the blunders made by both candidates. I agree with many commentators that President Trump’s constant interruptions and interjections were a blunder. They just confirmed the bad opinion of the man held by the nation’s Trump haters, and could not have appealed to independents. Even Trump supporters had to be chagrined by his contribution to turning the debate into a circus.
But an even more serious blunder was his failure to tell his story. This debate was perhaps his best opportunity in four years to meet and address the nation unfiltered by a hostile media. He could have taken the opportunity to explain that when he took office, the ship of state was headed in the wrong direction, and that it had to change direction. The previous administration had been a disaster in both domestic and foreign affairs.
Despite the insubordination and obstructionism of many of the crew members that in some cases amounted to downright mutiny, he and his administration had managed to change course and steer the ship in the right direction. At the outset opponents thought his administration could not last four weeks, but now in his fourth year he could claim to have accomplished more than the previous administration did in eight.
The President could also have told his story in response to the inevitable question about his personal income tax history. He could have explained that all his life he had been a businessman. He had inherited a good business from his father, and that he had worked hard to make it bigger and better, and that now he is a wealthy man. He could have explained, however, that in business you have good years and bad years. In the good years he paid millions in taxes, and in the bad very little because there were no profits. Expenses, including payroll, had exceeded income.
He could have contrasted his career with Joe Biden’s who had worked 47 years in government receiving a steady salary and benefits like other public servants. Nevertheless, Joe Biden managed in his 47 years to become a multi-multi-millionaire on a civil servant’s salary. Of course, the salaries and benefits of his congressional staff never came out of his pocket.
Candidate Biden had his own share of blunders. Perhaps the most serious was his evasiveness on a number of occasions. When asked for his opinion about packing the Supreme Court if he was elected, he deliberately declined to answer. It was an obviously prepared ploy especially when he then turned to the camera and implored people to get out and vote.
The President merely had to respond that even though candidate Biden would not answer the question, he would himself never be part of a scheme to increase the number of Supreme Court justices beyond the traditional nine. He let his opponent get away with this blunder.
In the same way, Biden evaded the question about the riots and looting going on in American cities. He claimed that he could not speak about them because he was just a “private citizen.” Yet, earlier he had boasted that not only was he the head of the Democratic party, but that in fact he was the Democratic party.
Biden’s name calling was also a serious blunder. He called the President of the United States a racist, a liar, and a clown. I thought the President should have called him out on this name-calling and even injected a little humor. “You call me a clown, but I did not stuff a jetliner with cash and fly it to Tehran to be used by an enemy regime to further terrorism.
In addition to these blunders, Biden made some mistakes that largely went unnoticed. He claimed that either 19 or 91 companies (he wasn’t sure) did not pay any corporate taxes last year, but failed to explain how his plan to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% would get revenues from companies who were in an effective zero bracket because of losses.
Finally, on the subject of racism he repeated the Democratic mantra of an America plagued with “systemic racism,” but then went on to describe America’s suburbs as racial utopias where White, Black, and Hispanic parents work together in carpools to take their kids to games.
Unless the President can make a strong comeback in the endgame, his own blunders in this first debate as well as his failure to capitalize on his opponent’s blunders may have cost him the game.
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