[Is that it? We need at least 500 more words. Ed.] OK. Please understand that I'm doing this, deliberately, before reading or listening to any commentary from anywhere, not even Breitbart. My unvarnished, uninfluenced opinion is that the Great Debate was just Sturm und Drang -- full of sound and fury signifying nothing. In in other words: SSDD -- Same Shit Different Day.
We were told by the lickspittle media that the event would be a good chance for Ms Harris to let the public get to know her, and, more importantly, put forward some policy ideas, of which her campaign had been noticeably bereft. I heard exactly two.
For the first 20 minutes or so, she was visibly and audibly nervous, but she did manage to trot out two promises: a tax break or grant or something of $6000 for new families, and some kind of financial support for small business. She didn't say whether a start-up would have to pass the DEI test to get the help. But she made both promises twice, so maybe that counts as four. I don't know.
After that, Ms Harris got more comfortable, cackling only once, although to be fair it was more like a giggle. She defaulted to her role as prosecutor, determined to make hard the way of the Orange Transfressor.
She trotted out all the lies, all the canards, all the rumours, all the innuendo she could think of or was programmed to say. It was all there: J6 - born with a silver spoon - Charlottesville - Project 2025 - national abortion ban - responsible for wards in Afghanistan and Ukraine - and (of course) "convicted felon".
All untrue or partly true, but neither of ABC's totally biased moderators was going to fact-check her, as they tried to do with President Trump. But the strategy was clear: throw as much mud as you can at the Orange Man and make him scrape it off.
And it worked. Mr Trump took the bait every time, and was so busy defending himself that he didn't land any heavy blows on his opponent. When he did come close, on the abortion issue for instance, the obviously biased moderators answered on the Cackler's behalf.
The first rebuttal came from Linsey Davis, the one wearing white-face makeup. After Mr Trump said some Democrats support executing babies after they are born, Ms Davis replied, "There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born," which is not what Mr Trump said, not at all. Ms Davis then quickly changed the subject, moving on to the next question.
The immoderate moderator David Muir intervened more times than did Ms Davis. It was he, not Ms Harris, who pushed back on Trump’s claim that Haitian migrants are eating dogs in Springfield OH. [Aha! Now we know what that meme was about! Ed.] Mr Muir said ABC News had looked into the claim, and had been told by Springfield's City Manager that "there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community."
That's what politicians, bureaucrats, and sports referees always say about inconvenient truths, "Well, we didn't see it." To which normal people reply, "Are you fucking blind?!" Mr Trump was more polite, saying only "I've seen people on television."
In another exchange, Mr Muir told President Trump, "The FBI says overall violent crime is actually coming down in this countr." Mr Trump said that claim was "fraud", just like the Democrats' inflated numbers of jobs created, and deflated numbers of illegal immigrants ruining the country.
On that point... Walt's greatest disappointment was Mr Trump's failure -- he was too busy swatting away the moderator flies -- to ask the Cackler if, in her time as Border Czar, she ever once visited the border. I'd like to have heard her (or Mr Muir) answer that one.
Mr Muir also tackled President Trump's assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Mr Muir offered a "clarification", saying that Mr Trump and his allies brought some 60 lawsuits and "many" judges said "there was no widespread [sic] fraud." So that's OK then.
On behalf of Ms Harris, Mr Muir also asked about a recent comment in which Mr Trump said he "lost by a whisker." President Trump replied that he made the comment "sarcastically, you know that." Mr Muir said he watched the videos and "I didn’t detect the sarcasm." Again, normal people might say otherwise.
But Mr Muir wouldn't give up. He passed the ball to the wide received, saying to Ms Harris, "You heard the President there tonight. He said he didn’t say that he lost by a whisker. So he still believes he did not lose the election that was won by President Biden and yourself."
President Trump appeared to want to move. "We have so many facts and statistics, but you know what? That doesn’t matter, because we have to solve the problem that we have right now. That’s old news." And so it was. SSDD.
In summary, last night President Trump marched into the lions' den, the Dimocratic stronghold of Philthydelphia, to do battle with a well-coached opponent (fresh from a week in debate camp), whose only strategy (honed to perfection by the late Great Democrat LBJ) was to tear him apart.
The Cackler was assisted by not one but two clearly biased moderators, who actually competed with her to see who could land the knock-out blow. Despite the 3-to-1 odds, President Trump emerged largely unscathed. The only damage done was to the principles of fair debate and free speech.
Further reading: "Trump debates ABC News", by Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine, 11/9/24.
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