The debate last night was a disappointment. To me both candidates were prepared, but prepared in different ways. Kamala had her many set phrases memorized, and dropped them in often. I can say that now I am certain that she grew up as a middle class kid, in a middle class family, in a middle class neighborhood. (She had obviously been told that she needed to appeal to the middle class, and tried to gain their favor by saying over and over that she was one of them.)
Similarly, Trump was apparently instructed to repetitively mention Kamala’s opposition to fracking, as fracking is very important to Pennsylvanians, and Pennsylvania is a critical swing state. Well played!
She was also apparently coached to be near tears at times. Whereas tears could never be a good thing for the President, near tears might establish her as compassionate to some.
On the other hand it appeared to me that Trump was coached to be Mr. Nice Guy, and he certainly was well behaved … perhaps too well behaved. I get the reasoning behind that debate philosophy, as he is behind with women voters, and his best behavior was necessary to not further swing his unfavorability with women any further to the negative.
Harris was also well coached to stay away from certain topics, such as immigration and inflation. Whenever she was asked questions concerning either of these topics, she did not answer the question, but rather was able to deflect to something else. Unfortunately, neither the moderators nor Donald Trump pressed her to actually answer the question asked. That should have been part of the moderators’ job, and DJT was too busy being nice.
I did notice something interesting when Trump and Harris were side-by-side on the TV screen – Harris’s head appeared larger. Was this just an innocent aberration? Hmmm!
In general, I do not think that as a result of this debate either candidate moved the needle in their favor. If this were a baseball game, I would say that the game is still tied at the end of the fifth inning.
9/11/0