My Thoughts on the Harris -Trump Debate

 No Knockout, but a Clear Win for Harris

 

Although Vice President Kamala Harris did not “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” in the words of Muhammad Ali, she clearly won last night’s debate. She came off as a cool and accomplished leader who many would see as presidential. In contrast Trump came off hot as the angry old man that he is. It is OK to show flashes of anger on television, but it is very hard to sustain anger for a full ninety minutes.

 

Harris was consistently forward looking, while Trump was looking back to the past. In a way Harris came off more as a challenger than Trump did. It was quite a trick for the sitting vice president to come off as the change candidate. On substance she was at her best in discussing abortion and weakest when talking about her changed positions. Here the ABC moderators failed in not following up on her radically changing views. They also failed in not focusing on the foreign policy and military challenges facing our country. It was Trump’s failure in not taking this fight to Harris. In a real sense, just like Biden two months ago, Trump lost the debate more than Harris won it.

 

Finally, to put a cherry on top of the cake, Taylor Swift endorsed Harris as soon as the debate ended.

Send Them a Message

In 1972 George Wallace was on the verge of winning the Democratic nomination for President when he was gunned down at a Maryland rally. On that day he would go on to win both the Maryland and Michigan primaries. He was running on the slogan "Send Them a Message." Now 44 years later Donald Trump is implicitly running on the same slogan.

My liberal friends are traumatized that the Clinton - Trump race is so close. They just can't comprehend that on the facts Hillary is far more qualified to be president than Trump and she should be far ahead. Now just to be clear I am on the record for Hillary. 

But I have a message for my friends, this election may not be about the facts. It is all about sending a message to the condescending bi-coastal liberal elites in the media, Hollywood, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. It is reminiscent of the 1970s movie Network, "they are as mad as hell and they are not going to take it anymore."

Simply put a vast swath of the electorate is tired of being preached to that they are racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic and on and on. In other words they are told by Hillary and her supporters that they are irredeemably deplorable. Trust me rhetoric like this, which may appeal to the salons in Manhattan, is not a good way to win votes in the country at large.

Whether they a guilty of all or some of these charges is likely true, but remember we are all flawed human beings trying to make our way in an imperfect world. And note carefully the liberal elites have their own prejudices against people of faith and white working class voters who don't look like them. As I have noted previously the Democrats have thrown the white working class under the bus in favor of cultural liberalism.

So when you watch the debate on Monday keep this in mind. The message will be far more important than debating points.