Walt reviews the Great Veep Debate

Poor Len Canayen and I watched last night’s vice-presidential debate between Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz, and I want you to know we gave up a pretty scrappy game between the Habs and the Ottawa Senators to do so. We were hoping for a good scrap between J.D. and Mr Awalz, but were surprised when it turned out to be a pretty good -- and reasonably cordial -- debate.

No knock-out punches were thrown. There wasn't even a little light sparring. In fact, issues and ideas were put forward, some concessions were made, and a certain level of agreement was reached on a couple of topics. My overall impression was that these candidates for the second-highest office in the Excited States of America looked and sounded far more worthy than the two we saw last month.

Some of you are going to hate me for this [As if you care. Ed.] but I want to start with appearances. Elections aren't supposed to be beauty contests, eh, but people do make judgments like "He looks like the kind of guy you could have a beer with" or "I just can't see him/her as [fill in office]."

Tampon Tim, with his jowls and wide mouth turned down at the corners, reminds me of Rugor Nass, the boss of the underwater kingdom of Otoh Gunga, in the first episode of Star Wars. Sorry. Senator Vance, with his square jaw, neatly trimmed beard and perfect-but-not-too-perfect hair, is straight out of Central Casting.

OK, forget about that. Once you stopped looking and started listening, the match became more even. The two men spent more time attacking the other's running mate than each other during 90-plus minutes. Governor Walz had a shaky start but hit his stride when talking about abortion and the so-called "Capitol riot". Overall, though, Senator Vance came off as the better-prepared and more polished public speaker. The consensus of even the lickspittle media is that he was the winner in a relatively clean and friendly contest.

Both candidates tried to portray themselves as down-home boys. (Arentcha sick and tired of "I was raised in a middle-class family."?) Mr Walz, with all his talk of "my farmers" and "we grow corn and soybeans", over-egged the custard. Mr Vance did better with his stories of the problems of his family and other real people that will be remembered from his book.

Senator Vance seemed much more comfortable. His answers were smooth, and relentlessly on-message, constantly reminding the audience that for all of Vice-President Harris's promises, Democrats have held the White House for the past three and a half years and have done next to nothing about the problems which the Cackler now says she has a plan to fix. "If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle class problems," he said, "then she ought to do them now."

If Senator Vance was picked because he puts ideological meat on the bones of President Trump's conservative populism, on Tuesday night he put a polite, humble face on them, as well. One of his better lines was, "Something these guys do is they make a lot of claims about if Donald Trump becomes president, all of these terrible consequences are going to ensue. But in reality, Donald Trump was president. Inflation was low. Take-home pay was higher." 

It wasn't long before the CBS wimmin moderators violated their own rules and started in fact-checking Mr Vance. At one point, the microphones of both candidates were temporarily muted. But for the most part, the exchanges on stage were even-tempered. Indeed, there were several moments when the two men agreed on issues, if not on how the issues should be dealt with. Toward the end, Gov. Walz said, "There’s a lot of commonality here."

There was, however, an unpleasant moment when Timmy said the only reason Mike Pence was not at the podium occupied by Senator Vance was that he certified President Joe Biden’s victory, for which Republicans wanted to hang him!  Mr Vance missed a golden opportunity to reply that the only reason Mr Walz was the Democratic candidate is that Ms Harris didn't want a Jew as a running mate, for fear of blowing [Geddit? Ed.] the Arab-Muslim vote.

That said, Mr Walz showed some of the mid-western charm -- he knows which end of the straw to put in his mouth -- that the Dimocrats hope will counter the Cackler's California brass. He didn't do the Dems any harm. 

Senator Vance's strong showing is likely to convince a lot of those precious undecided voters, and boost Republicans polling numbers in the days ahead. Moreover, his polished and relatable performance may well convince members of the GOP that the junior senator from Ohio -- two decades younger than Timmy -- has a future in national conservative politics, no matter what happens on the Day of Reckoning. Ed. is already composing a headline on the theme of "Vance ascendant".

In conclusion, I'll repeat what I wrote about 24 hours ago. When you vote, you're electing not just a president, but the person who will succeed her/him in the event of his/her death. Which of these men would you trust to sit in the Oval Office, with his hands on the levers of power? Well???

Walt reviews the Not-so-great Debate: SSDD

Yeah, I watched it -- all of it -- the made-for-TV event that the legacy media talking heads called, even before it started, "the first and probably the only" debate between President Trump and Vice-President Harris. They were that scared that the Cackler was going to crash and burn. She didn't.

[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.

UPDATED: The point of "I've got a little list..."

NOTE FROM ED., posted 16/4/21. A reader, Ben Tobox of Bowlegs OK (you can look it up), didn't get the point of our reposting of the People's Cube's  list of people that the Antifa and other extreme liberal types would like to censor, since they can't actually execute them. 

I encourage you, Ben, and all our readers, to read the list, name by name. There may be some names you don't recognize, just as Walt didn't know the name of Thomas Sowell until recently. If you find such a name, like John Kennedy (for instance), Google him/her and see what you can find. Maybe you'll find a blog with some worthwhile reading. 

Or search the name on YouTube and find a video like this one, in which Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) tries to find out what "systemic racism" means. Keep your eyes, ears and minds open. That's the point.

In the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Mikado, the Lord High Executioner sings "I've got a little list", a patter song of those who could be executed "and surely won't be missed." That's what they did in medieval Japan. In today's Excited States of America, we don't execute those we are afraid of. We just impeach them!

Whether you intend to execute your enemies or just "cancel" them by censorship (sometimes known as "fact-checking") or impeachment, you need a list -- a fecal roster -- right? 

The People's Cube has started one, to which all progressive liberal socialist Dumbocrats are encouraged to contribute. If you're on the right side [Geddit? Ed.],  you might want to check to see if you name is on the SJW/BLM/Antifa list. 

Executive Purge Nominees

Trump-Hitler (already in progress), Bush-Hitler (just to close the loop), George H. W. Bush (exhume because he only served one term), Gerald Ford (exhume so SNL can get some funny jokes), Mike Pence, all members of Trump’s family (looking at you, Barron).

Hope Hicks, Kayleigh McEnany, and all of Newsmax's 30 Most Influential Republicans Under 30, Mike Lindell. Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, Jim DeMint, Michele Bachmann, Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem, Greg Abbott, Tommy Tuberville, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio.

Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Ben Carson, Rick Santorum, John Kennedy, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Nikki Haley, Ted Nugent, Allen West, Marsha Blackburn, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Steve Bannon, Ann Coulter... to be continued.... 

If you're not there, you can go to the People's Cube page and add yourself. Remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!