{"id":3309,"date":"2020-09-30T07:54:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T11:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=3309"},"modified":"2020-09-30T07:55:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T11:55:01","slug":"the-last-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2020\/09\/30\/the-last-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Junkie<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I am a political \u201cjunkie\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve watched Presidential debates since before I understood what they meant.\u00a0\u00a0When Kennedy and Nixon squared off in \u201cblack and white\u201d in 1960, I was watching.\u00a0\u00a0As a newly turned four-year old, I probably didn\u2019t grasp the finer points of the \u201cmissile gap\u201d argument, but I watched.\u00a0\u00a0At twenty I was even more invested in 1976 when Ford and Carter debated.\u00a0\u00a0I was on the lowest rung of the Carter\/Mondale paid staff. Watching was part of my job.\u00a0\u00a0And after that, as a teacher, watching debates was also part of my employment.\u00a0\u00a0Discussing the results was on the \u201clesson plan\u201d for the next day. So I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve missed a Presidential debate in the last sixty years \u2013 damn!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I was ready last night.\u00a0\u00a0With my legal pad and pen, I was set to write down notes for this essay this morning.\u00a0\u00a0I was prepared for THE Presidential Debate, with the great issues of American life argued by the two people vying to lead our nation through what I consider the existential crisis in American history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pad is still blank – I didn\u2019t write a word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junkyard Dog<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who reads these essays know I have \u201ca dog in this fight\u201d.  Just yesterday I wrote about the \u201cclosing argument<\/a>\u201d for electing Joe Biden as President of the United States.  Unlike my classroom discussions of previous debates, I don\u2019t take a neutral stance here.  So it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that I agree with many of Vice President Biden\u2019s positions, and pretty much everything he was able to get out last night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I know President Trump\u2019s history.  I watched him \u201clurk\u201d behind Hillary Clinton, somehow trying to intimidate her into submission four years ago.  And we all know his shattered relationship with facts, even with fidelity to his own statements.  Whatever he said yesterday means nothing, whatever serves his purpose at the moment is whatever he will say now.  So I didn\u2019t expect a \u201ctraditional\u201d debate, where two serious people argue their views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what I saw last night was a fifteen-year old boy in a seventy-four year old body, doing everything he could to disrupt and distract.  He\u2019s that kid in the back of the room that would last five minutes in any good teacher\u2019s class \u2013 then would be on his way down to the office for discipline.  When I was a high school Dean of Students, responsible for a 1200 kid building, he was that student who was getting the last word, the last insult, even as I handed him his suspension papers.  He was the one yelling as he went out the door, threatening and growling like a junkyard dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issues<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

President Trump didn\u2019t want to talk about any issues, other than the Russian disinformation about Hunter Biden swallowed whole by Senator Ron Johnson.  His goal was simply to intimidate Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace.  He didn\u2019t have facts; he had insults.  His plans; for the pandemic, for healthcare, for the economy, were whatever Joe Biden didn\u2019t want.  He was willing to support white supremacists, and spit on American norms.  He was a bully and a jerk.  \u201cA**hole\u201d is the only word that really describes his behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden responded by defending himself, and demanding of the moderator some modicum of fairness and following of the agreed rules.  He didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden insulted \u201cthe President\u201d.  He told him to \u201cshut-up\u201d, said he was the \u201cworst President in history\u201d, and called him a \u201cclown\u201d.  There will be commentators this morning who will say that Biden \u201cfell\u201d for Trump\u2019s plan, and lowered himself to Trump\u2019s level.  But it seems to me that Biden showed more patience than was humanly possible.  And he often did exactly what he needed to do:  he turned from the nonsense, and spoke directly to the American people about what he hopes to do to solve our problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America\u2019s Problem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But last night made it clear what the ultimate problem is in America.  It\u2019s the petulant man who stood at the other podium, acting like a teenaged child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did Donald Trump gain from this strategy?  He certainly didn\u2019t \u201csway\u201d any undecided voters.  By the numbers, Donald Trump is six to ten points behind in the critical states he needs to carry.  Last night\u2019s performance did not move anyone to his side.  And while maybe he hoped to motivate some of his Trump Base to \u201cget excited\u201d and go vote, social media indicates that didn\u2019t work.  No Trumper \u201cswitched\u201d to Biden, but a whole lot of them were writing about \u201chow bad they both were\u201d.  Even the MAGA hat supporters were talking about microphone switches and shock collars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if Trump\u2019s strategy was to rattle Biden so badly that he either couldn\u2019t talk (see \u2013 I made him stutter) or would lose his temper \u2013 that didn\u2019t work either.  If fitness to run the United States of America under pressure was the test, only one of those two failed miserably:  Donald Trump.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My recommendation to Vice President Biden \u2013 make that the last debate.  No one, even Trump supporters, wants to watch that spectacle again.  It is the Trump campaign that has everything to gain and nothing to lose in debates.  But that\u2019s too bad for them.  His behavior has earned him an \u201cexpulsion\u201d from the podium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junkie I am a political \u201cjunkie\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve watched Presidential debates since before I understood what they meant.\u00a0\u00a0When Kennedy and Nixon squared off in \u201cblack and white\u201d in 1960, I was watching.\u00a0\u00a0As a newly turned four-year old, I probably didn\u2019t grasp the finer points of the \u201cmissile gap\u201d argument, but I watched.\u00a0\u00a0At twenty I was even more … Continue reading “The Last Debate”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Last Debate : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Presidential debate was "on" last night. 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