Trump is adamant that he won the debate. I think on a technical level he's right. But I think in the eyes of most, only accounting for the debate performances themselves, Harris won.
A technical win, you say?
Here's the thing. We already know who Trump is. And that's true no matter which side of the aisle you are on. Even the independents and the undecided voters know who Trump is. Who they were at the debate to see was Kamala Harris.
Well, because she's the supposed "new and improved" Kamala Harris, complete with a whole new package of goods she's selling.
I think what the independents and undecideds wanted to know more than anything is how she would explain her sudden changes of policy. Of course, that never happened because David Muir and Linsey Davis, who moderated the debate, pretty much spent the whole night grilling Trump and giving Harris a pass.
Unfortunately, the technicalities aren't what matters in debates like this. It's about how you look. It's about how you perform. It's about how you answer the questions, or don't.
Trump had some good responses. But he did lose focus more than once, and I think one of the greatest opportunities he missed was to lash back at Harris after she brought up that confounded border bill Trump was against, that the media adamantly refuses to not tell the truth about.
The fact is that the Biden administration never needed the bill to secure the border. Just as easily as, on day one, Biden sat behind his desk in the Oval Office and reversed all of Trump's border policies, he could have sat behind that same desk and restored them.
Trump could have said that. Trump should have made that abundantly clear. But he didn't, and that was a serious missed opportunity, I think, that (at least in the eyes of some voters) mooted his other points about the seriousness of the border issue even though I still think most people get it.
Trump's take is essentially that he won. For him, that's all he needs to know. As he told Sean Hannity after the debate, the only time you ask for a rematch is if you think you've lost. But again, he only won on technical basis.
Granted, it may still be way too early to say whether or not the debate had any impact on either candidate. Polls will have to be done, and we probably won't know any real answers on that until days later.
Harris had a good day. At least for all intents and purposes—again, regardless of whether or not anything she said was true or could be taken at face value. That's not the point. So close to the election and with this crazy roller coaster ride getting wilder and wilder, I don't think Trump should pass up any opportunity to do a debate and get his message out, and potentially expose Harris for what she really is.
A complete fraud.
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© 2024 Jim Bauer
