Election 2020: Debate Armageddon

The overriding question left after a dose of Tuesday night’s debate is “what just happened?”

Well, as viewers, not much or so it felt. Except for Biden’s stares into the camera. The first of three presidential debates wavered off topic(s) so much, we lost our collective experience with debates.

For Trump, that’s a win: tear up the norms, torch the process and if all else fails, cry foul. What we didn’t hear from the debates was a coherent thought. No matter: who’s really expecting a coherent thought anyway?

Once again America was played the sucker by “The Apprentice” star. And we were left with a foul taste.

Biden’s stares became the sole gift of the night. As much as Biden’s eyes turned from the debate moderator, Chris Wallace and met the camera lens, so to were our eyes meeting his. As much as Biden’s whispers into the mic revealed his attitude, so did our listening align with that attitude. ‘Yes, this is happening,’ was Biden’s oft repeated undertone. An attempt at reassurance: I was reminded of a sign posted outside an Edgewater, Chicago church, “everything will be ok.”

Biden seemed to be saying as much during Tuesday’s debate: “vote for me and everything will be ok.”

For Trump, the debate was the gift of ninety free minutes of exposure. His campaign as in 2016 is running out of funds for ad buys, so “free” exposure at this stage in the campaign is a necessity. More likely his ad buys will be spent in swing states and not many other places. Another reason to expose the Trump agenda.

Remarkably, the only time Trump ventured beyond his own rumbling ego was his praise of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

But Trump couldn’t even properly gift Barrett’s praise: Trump relied on the word of an anonymous Norte Dame Professor’s assessment, “she’s the brightest student I ever taught.” Yes, an unnamed Professor, ‘a fine man, a great man.’

September 29, 2020