Debate Report Card

 

My wife and I watched the Presidential debate last Thursday night, and it was obvious that President Biden lost. I rate his performance as a “D” because he at least completed the grueling ordeal. My impression was confirmed by watching the spinmeisters discuss the debate afterwards. Even the most die-hard Democrats admitted as much. It didn’t take words. Their faces told the story.

 

 It was not that you could point to a blunder or two. President Biden looked and sounded weak and infirm. One Democratic commentator noted that there is only three years difference in their ages, but Trump looked and acted thirty years younger.

 

Joe Louis, one of boxings greatest champions, once said of an opponent that “he can run, but he can’t hide.” Well, President Biden may be running but he couldn’t hide during the debate. We finally saw the real Joe, or what was left of him at age 81. Finally, he stood alone without even Jill at his side, and we saw him without teleprompter or prepared remarks although he had spent a week preparing. It was sad, even sadder when you consider that he is the President of the United States.  

 

President Biden’s deportment during the debate would make you think that we have not really had a President for the past three and a half years. I would go even further and say that he appears like a figurehead or puppet, and that during his term I suspect that the country has been run by a secret cabinet of non-elected Democratic bureaucrats and advisors working behind the scenes. 

 

For three years Jill and the others in his inner circle must have observed that he was suffering from old age, and that he was no longer fit for the job. Along with a cooperative media, they have perpetrated a colossal fraud on us. They have hidden the real Joe from us but in the debate we could see and hear the truth with our own eyes and ears. 

 

It is hard to believe that the professional politicians who run the Democratic party could have come up with the idea of this early debate. Sure, CNN would give Biden the home court advantage, and the moderators were friendly referees. Nevertheless, debate innovations like shutting off the mikes to prevent interruptions just worked to Trump’s advantage. It toned him down and allowed Biden to disgrace himself.

 

Speaking of Trump, I gave him only a C+ for the debate. He came off as strong and vigorous, and was good on inflation and immigration, but he missed too many opportunities to score. He belabored many points and often repeated himself, and when the moderators tossed him softballs like childcare, he could have hit them out of the park but let them pass. In a night with few memorable lines, he just threw away his best line. When he said something like, “I shouldn’t be here, I should be enjoying a good retirement at some resort, that I was not going to run again until I saw what a bad job Biden was doing,” that statement belonged in his final two-minute summation. 

 

Speaking of grades, I would give an “A” to the two CNN moderators for the way they conducted themselves, and the debate. I thought their questions were fair and balanced, and especially liked the way they reminded the candidates that they had time remaining on the clock to expand on their remarks. I believe that the format should be a model for future debates.

 

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PS. By coincidence, I have been reading the letters of Junius, an eighteenth century critic of the British government on the eve of the American Revolution. In one passage he discussed the Duke of Bedford, an aging aristocrat and minister whose policies contributed to the American war and the eventual loss of the American colonies.

 

“ Let us consider you then, as arrived at the summit of worldly greatness; let us suppose that all your plans of avarice and ambition are accomplished, and your most sanguine wishes gratified… can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of life? Can gray hairs make folly venerable? And is there no period to be reserved for meditation and retirement? For shame, … let it not be recorded of you, that the latest moments of your life were dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the same busy agitations, in which your youth and manhood were exhausted. Consider that, although you cannot disgrace your former life, you are violating the character of age, and exposing the impotent imbecility, after you have lost the vigor, of the passions.”

Republican Debate Impressions

 

In the recent Republican Presidential debate the eight candidates did little to help themselves in their uphill struggle against former President Donald Trump. To paraphrase an old expression, the messenger is the message, and so let’s look at the candidates. What impression did these candidates give?

 

First, some left little impression. At one end Asa Hutchinson, despite his age and experience, looked like he was running for president in the nineteenth century. At the other end of the stage Governor Borghum of North Dakota did not demonstrate that he was ready for prime time. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina gave the impression that he was running for Vice-President. Senators rarely make good candidates for the Presidency. 

 

Nikki Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina, and the only woman in the field, claimed that former President Donald Trump is the most hated man in America. As I heard these words, I wondered if she realized that she would become the most hated woman in America if, by some miracle, she became the Republican nominee. Can she be blind to the reality that with social media and an incredibly biased mainstream media, it is possible to demonize any Republican and turn them into objects of mass hatred?

 

Former Governor Chris Christie provided another example of a blind politician. His claim to fame is that he was elected Governor of blue state New Jersey, but he failed to point out that he bungled the job, and that now New Jersey is bluer than ever. Moreover, he launched an all- out attack on Trump despite the fact that the former President enjoys overwhelming support among Republican voters. Is he running for the Republican or Democratic nomination?

 

That leaves former Vice President Mike Pence, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, and billionaire outlier Vivek Ramaswamy. In a better world, Trump and Pence would have been re-elected in 2020, and in 2024 Mike Pence would naturally have become the Republican nominee. He did defend the achievements of the Trump administration during the debate, but right or wrong January 6 makes him persona non grata among Trump diehards. He is knowledgeable, experienced, and competent but lacks charisma and fire. He would be better off running for Senator from Indiana.

 

I thought that Governor DeSantis did a good job at the debate although at times he seemed a little strident. I do think he is too young for the Presidency. I cannot understand the mentality of a man with two young children who will expose them to the stress of the Presidency. I still believe it would be better for him to mend his fences with Trump and become his running mate. After all, Kamala Harris practically called Joe Biden a racist but still was chosen to be his running mate. If elected, Trump will be a lame duck and would need an heir apparent in 2028. No one fits that bill better than DeSantis.

 

Finally, I thought Vivek Ramaswamy was a breath of fresh air. He had the best lines of the night. He unabashedly called Trump the best President of the 21^stcentury. I know that’s not saying much since the others were George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden but he gave credit where credit was due, not like the others. He was not afraid to claim that the climate change movement was a hoax. It was interesting that neither the other candidates nor the moderators challenged him on this statement. Then, he was alone in opposing arms for Ukraine, and a further escalation of that war. I do not know where this dynamic young man will end up in politics, but it seems to me he represents the wave of the future.

 

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Debate Debacle 2020

  

      

In their second and final debate I gave President Trump a “B+” and Democratic challenger Joe Biden a “D”. I think it was obvious to all that the President won the debate. Even left leaning commentators could find little to blame in his performance. One commentator even said it was the President’s best ever debate performance. Using sports talk, the President was always playing offense while challenger Joe Biden was playing defense. Whether in sports or in politics you will lose if you are always playing defense.

I gave Biden a “D” not because of his politics or policy plans but because of what he did not say or do. Not only was he unable to mount an offense, his defense was weak. At one point in the debate the question had turned to China. Nevertheless, Biden turned to face the camera and the viewing audience and launched into an obviously prepared set piece about ordinary people sitting around their kitchen tables. 

 

The President immediately caught him up and said something like, “What happened to China? How did we get to the kitchen table.?” Then came the stunning and devastating blow: 

 

“You’re just a politician.”

 

It was even more stunning because the President uttered it calmly and matter of factly. He did not raise his voice, there was no malice and maybe even a hint of sadness. “You’re a politician.” It was a slap in the face and Biden just took it.

 

When the discussion turned to the enrichment of the Biden family by deals in the Ukraine and China, the President calmly called Biden a “crooked politician,” and again there was no response. Biden just took it. 

 

Later, the President doubled down. In response to Biden’s repeated claims that there were many things wrong in America and that he had “plans” to fix them, the President said, “Joe, you had eight years to fix them. You did nothing.” And then came the crusher: “Joe, you are the reason I ran four years ago. If you hadn’t done such a bad job, I would never have run for the Presidency.”

 

Slap, slap, slap. Incredibly Biden did not respond. He just stood there and took this damning indictment. He could only bring himself to mutter something like, “I was only Vice-President.” In effect, he threw his old boss, former President Obama, under the bus.  

 

I would have given the President an “A” except for the fact that he failed to capitalize on a great opportunity at the end.

 

For her last question Kristen Welker, the moderator lobbed this softball at both candidates. I paraphrase but she asked, “Assuming you won the election, what would you say in your inaugural address to those who had voted against you?”  It seemed to me that both gave a stock answer and that the President settled for a single when he could have hit the ball out of the park.

 

He should have been prepared to say, when given such an opportunity, “I know that many of you who voted against me do not like me. Many even hate me. I know that you will not believe anything I say. But I am reminded of the conman’s attempt to trick his victim: ‘Who ae you gonna believe, me or your own two eyes?’ I will not ask you to believe me, but in the next four years I will ask you to use your own two eyes in looking at the actual work of my administration.

 

Just look through your own eyes and not through the eyes of the media which no longer brings you straight, unfiltered, no-spin news. Use your own eyes to see how you, your family, your neighbors, and your community are doing.  Are your own sons and daughters fighting in endless foreign wars, or are they coming home at last? Is a vaccine available to all for the coronavirus? Is the air and water in your community clean and healthy? Are your childrens' schools open and safe? Are you financially more secure? How is your 401k and IRA doing? Has your home increased in value? 

 

Is the America that you see every day as bad as my opponents claim? Most of you live in communities that are the envy of the world. That is why so many people want to come here. Etc. etc.

 

I watched the debate until the end when the candidates’ wives joined their husbands on stage. It was really sad to see Joe Biden’s wife join her 78-year-old husband after this long ordeal. What could she have been thinking?

 

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