Frankly, I wasn’t impressed with either candidate during the debate; I thought the event was pretty lousy. I believe Kamala had more to gain from it; she has been depicted in the past (by Right and Left) as less than mediocre, stumbling, silly, and not a terribly deep-minded person. The Left, of course, now presents her as the Mother of God, but the idea still lingered that she was a bit of a bozo. She needed to show the America people that she was more than just a word salad and a cackling hen, and that she was prepared to serve as president of the United States. She did avoid making a complete fool of herself, but whether she convinced enough people she was ready for the most powerful position on earth remains to be seen.
Trump, on the other, needed to appear presidential and avoid being a horse’s behind. I think he accomplished that, but I also think that is about all he accomplished. He probably could have clinched the presidency, but I doubt he did. More on that in a moment.
Harris clearly showed herself to be a typical Democrat, with absolutely no morals or conscience whatsoever. She lied—knowingly, deliberately, constantly—about Charlottesville, “bloodbath”, J6, and a host of other matters. She knows that what she said, on many occasions, were flat falsehoods. How can you have any respect for a person like that? I certainly don’t. Politicians lie all the time, of course, but what Harris did went way beyond the pale, falsehoods that have been debunked countless times. There is no excuse for deliberately lying to people just for political gain. What Kamala Harris proved to me was her utter insincerity. Her whole demeanor was fake and condescending. But then, she’s a Democrat, and every day, the leaders of that party demonstrate, more and more, the Satanic nature of their character.
I confess I was disappointed in Trump. He missed a glorious chance to draw a clear distinction between himself and Harris by exposing the Biden-Harris administration for what it has been in contrast to his own. He was able to do that on small occasions, but too often, he fell for her bait and went off on a useless tangent defending himself where it didn’t need to be done. He should have been better prepared for that and he wasn’t.
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But that is Trump, and it has been his main fault all along. His arrogance, his narcissism, his ego. And it came through again, not so much in his actions in the debate, but in his utter lack of preparation for it. Trump thinks he is smarter and a better debater than he really is, so he believes he doesn’t need to prepare, that he can handle anything that comes his way without previous groundwork. He should know by now exactly what the Democrats are going to throw at him, but he didn’t act like he did. As a result, he found himself constantly on the defensive with less-than-sterling, often rambling, pointless answers. I’ve seen this in every one of his debates and there is no excuse for it.
Debaters need to be prepared, especially when the fate of the nation is at stake. Trump should have had facts and figures at his fingertips, ready to answer and provide information. He should have anticipated questions and been thoroughly equipped to answer them. And then he should have constantly gone on the offensive, asking Kamala why she (and Biden) hadn’t done X, what, specifically, she is going to do about Y, why should we believe she is going to do Z when she’s had nearly four years to do it and hasn’t yet. Trump rarely did any of that, and as a result, was usually ineffective. He should also have fired back, firmly and with facts, at the moderators when they “fact-checked” him. Yes, it was three against one, but...that’s what Trump should have prepared for. He didn’t, and he may have lost the presidency because of it; at best, he ensures himself a difficult fight for the rest of the campaign.
Trump had a grand opportunity to knock Harris out of the park by showing himself knowledgeable, competent, firm, decisive, confident, and caring. And you can only do that in a debate if you are well-prepared. All of that would have contrasted completely with Harris, who, even though she apparently prepped for days before the debate, still gave vague, indecisive answers, lied repeatedly, and attacked Trump more than she defended her own record or explained clearly what she would do as president. Nobody expected much out of her; the bar was so low that a caterpillar could have jumped over it. I suspect, for many Americans, she surpassed their expectations. And because Trump didn’t expose her nearly as well as he should have, the close campaign continues.
If they debate again, Trump needs to be thoroughly prepared for it. He is a far superior candidate, and America needs him as president. He owes it to the people to do the best he can in these debates, and that means be fully, FULLY, prepared. But, if there is a second debate, he probably won’t prepare, because that’s just the kind of man he is, and it’s what we get with Trump. He's ten times better than Kamala Harris, but he didn’t show it. As a result, he might just be turning over the country to a worse-than-Biden.
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