Honest Joe vs. Dishonest Abe

Trump speaks, Biden and America cringes.

Donald Trump says 2.2 million people were going to die. That only 210,000 have is thus a great success.

It’s a lie. A rather vile lie, since it traduces human lives. I know, Trump is not responsible for 210,000 deaths—many would have died had the country taken adequate action against COVID-19. But the death toll could have and should have been much lower, and the spike can be lowered now, with effective, science-based action that this president can’t wrap his head around.

It was a night of lies from Donald Trump. The final presidential debate of 2020 is over, and I have to admit I am relieved.

Trump did score some points. His contention that Biden’s environmental plan spell economic disaster is going to be the point pounded on again and again in attack ads for the next 12 days. Not that it’s true. As is much of what Trump said tonight, it’s a lie.

A lie delivered coldly and calmly by a president who dismisses severed families as the fault of coyotes, COVID-19 as the fault of China and economic meltdown as—well, I’m not sure who he is blaming. Trump claimed the economy would be a disaster if Biden is elected, but who the heck was president this year when the recession kicked in?

Typical Trump. "Don’t elect him or the chaos I have caused will continue." "Elect me so that I can put out the fire that I lit in the first place."

Sigh.

Some keys in tonight’s debate:

• Biden nailed Trump on his tax returns. Trump tries to paint Biden as corrupt, but one of Trump's consistent patterns is to project his own flaws onto his foes. I don’t think Joe is pure like the October snow—but on the corruption meter, Trump has pretty much everyone trumped, yet he says Biden is corrupt. And Biden is the one who has released his tax returns, not Trump. Tell me again how Trump is more honest?

• Trump made anybody with a brain sick to their stomach with his Lincoln lines. No, Trump, you are not the “least racist” person in the room. As Biden said, his dog whistles are fog horns. In one breath, you’re the least racist, in the next, your saying immigrants who show up for hearings have low IQs. You’re blaming China, coyotes and claiming not to be racist.

• COVID-19 should be the nail in the coffin for this president. Just consider this exchange: “People are learning to die with it,” Biden on the pandemic. “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault.” Actual comeback quote from Trump.

I do think that Trump did better tonight than the first debate, although he set a rather low bar to lumber over. Trump was still spouting insults, lies and trite campaign lines.

Biden speaks during debate.

Trump needed to change the dynamics of the election tonight. I do not think he did. I think Biden held his own, which I hope is all he had to do. And what was that about pillows and sheets? Earth to Trump: What?

Image by Gage Skidmore from wikimedia commons. Kristen Welker of NBC in Arizona in 2018.

Kristen Welker of NBC News did pretty well, I thought. She had been insulted by Trump before the debate, but was praised by him during the debate. Despite that, I think the use of the enforced time limits was good. There was some cross shouting, but not the chaos of the first debate. Her questions were decent and she stayed calm.

Well, that phase of the campaign is over. Five-thirty-eight is starting to write about a possible blue wave that could take the Senate, keep the House and win the presidency. Trump’s fantasy about taking the House rang very hollow, and I don’t think Trump built much of a flood wall against the coming blue wave.

The Dueling Town Halls In Different Universes

Trump (above) and Biden (below) with voter questioners. Both are talking about COVID-19.

Well, I watched most of both town halls Oct. 15, and I kind of regret it. I’ve voted already, and I had trouble summoning the energy to watch. I also didn’t see all of Trump's because my DVR wasn’t totally functioning—satellite TV has been a bit wonky since the derecho storm Aug. 10, which feels like yesterday and three years ago at the same time.

Anyway, I missed the thing I’ve seen lots of tweets about—the voter who told Trump he was handsome when he smiles. I am glad I missed that. I ate a lot of pizza tonight and I would rather that it proceeds through my body without making any return journeys. Eyesight, apparently, is the next coming crisis in America.

But I saw enough—more than enough. I watched Joe Biden live. His was scheduled first, and I thought it was a courtesy to let him go first. I thought he was rather subdued and I was not thrilled at his performance.

Joe Biden. Quieter, calmer, and, in a sane universe, way more presidential.

 

On the other hand, he was responsive. He was polite to questioners. He asked if he had answered the questions. He admitted he has made mistakes, and noted that if he loses, it could be because “I was a lousy candidate,” a refreshing openness to the possibility of human flaws that one would never hear from President Trump.

And old Joe suddenly looked a lot better after I viewed my recorded sample of Trump. Quiet reserve gave way to angry, crazy shouting.

Would he denounce QAnon? That famous selective Trump amnesia suddenly kicked in. QAnon? Never heard of them.

What about a retweet that alleges a fresh, new democratic murder conspiracy (totally normal). “That was a retweet,” the president said. Like that’s a defense? I use Twitter, too, and I don’t retweet something that I don’t believe in. Saying something is a retweet, coming from the president, was a very odd nondefense defense. If it was batshit bullshit (which it clearly was), why is tangerine Mussolini (thank you, niece, for that linguistic flair that I stole from you) retweeting it? And then disavowing any knowledge of it?

Trump with another voter

Mr. President, your tweets are, like it or not, communications from the most powerful head of state to the world. “It was a retweet” means that you don’t care about the truth of what BS you spread from your bully pulpit. You made the bully pulpit the bullshit pulpit, and we’re a coarser, more ignorant country thanks to your terrible presidency.

Yikes.

As TV spectacles go, both town halls lacked something. It was the other candidate. Without any response from the “other side,” the town halls lacked a lot.

Trump, I suppose, was more watchable, in the sense that a plane crashing and burning on landing is more compelling to watch than a plane safely landing.

Yet, it makes you appreciate safe landings a bit more, too. Old Joe. He didn’t set the world on fire. And that’s a small blessing.

Maybe The Fly Is All That Makes Sense

 

Fly on Pence. I watched most of the debate on MSNBC, but a bti on ABC, too. I think this was ripped off from ABC.

I feel some sympathy for Mike Pence.

In the middle of a nationally televised debate, a fly landed on his head and became the enduring symbol of the 2020 vice presidential debate. It’s odd how asides become “the thing” in media—a candidate’s ride in a tank, a yowl to an Iowa crowd, one remark about a bucket of deplorables.

But sometimes the asides resonate because they are consistent with some larger reality. That’s reading too much into the fly, which didn’t mean a thing despite all the memes about what flies are attracted too and what that means about Mike Pence. Because, honestly, it doesn’t mean anything except that’s where a mindless fly happened to land.

I wrote a reaction to the presidential debate, which was another level of shit show all its own. And the fire-hose of crazy that is our deranged, drug-addled Dear Leader has made the VP debate last night seem like a month ago. Perhaps this was the last debate of 2020, because if someone else controls the megaphone, our loudmouthed lout of a leader can’t lower himself to participate.

Such is 2020, but I’ll carry on and comment a bit on the Kamala show, even though it probably doesn’t mean a thing.

Vice Presidential Debates: The Xander of politics. Everyone loves them but they don’t mean that much.

I’m betting that if you liked Donald, you liked Mike Pence even more. I don’t’ know for sure, because if you like Donald, the twisted avenues of logic in your addled brain aren’t routes I can follow.

The man Pence succeeded in not being a totally deranged moron, which in Trumpland makes him a genius. Like he’s been to “read the book” school, although in Penceland I’m sure it’s “read the Book school” because there’s only one.

But if you like Donald at this point, it’s probably that “read the book school” in your past didn’t make enough of an impression. OK—I’m sure some good people like Trump for various reasons I can’t possibly imagine, and I’ll try not to be too insulting or snarky because it does nothing for discourse. Honestly, thought. We’re way past the time when it makes any sense. He unmasks while he is infectious, rage tweets on steroids and is clearly making a mess of himself.

So, back to the Kamala Harris Show. The debate. Remember that? She didn’t always answer the question (will they pack the court or not?)—but she was “there” and responsive compared to the male animatronic that was Mike Pence. She had a few slips of the tongue—clearly misspoke some numbers, for instance. But she was smart, insightful.

Kamala Harris watched Mike Pence mansplain. I'm afraid I've been guilty of this sometimes, but men, we do not want to make a woman make that look. And no, it was not disrespectful--Pence was a time hog, a chorono-bully. Totally manly. In all the wrong ways. Clearly I was watching MSNBC early in the debate.

And female. Not just a woman, but a woman who is used to misogynist men who mansplain too much. Which was Pence, fly or no fly.

I don’t know how often the host had to try to reign Pence it, but the boring talking robot had some prerecorded messages to dump on the audience and was not to be deterred by any silly rules.

Kamala had a bit more impact in shutting him up. Kamala—it was no contest. In substance, she was closer to fact land, even if she did sometimes spin. Pence, as a Trump spokesperson must be, spun like a tornado. Kamala was a derecho, straight on and relentless.

Senate image. My chosen dinner guest.

So, the winner? There was no contest, really. Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted that Pence won the debate because people would want to invite him for dinner, which makes me wonder how boring dinners are at Chuck's house because I thought the conversation would be far more interesting with Kamala as the guest.

Trump and his campaign have violently imploded. Which doesn’t mean for sure that he will lose the election—never forget 2016 and the disaster that was caused by the Electoral College, that 18^th century twist on democracy that is still with us—but Trump has taken some self-inflicted hits and keeps plowing right back into that iceberg. He’s a titanic mess.

Trump is a man infected with coronavirus who didn’t learn anything from the experience. An N of one who is convinced his experience enlarges to everyone.

He didn’t die (yet) and is convinced that a disease that robbed America of 210,000 souls and counting, and more than a million globally, is not a big deal. Time to ride around in a closed limo with your guards to waive at your mindless minions so that you can stoke your evil ego—abusing guards who have sworn to take a bullet for you but who should not have to needlessly face a bat virus. Mock your opponents for wearing life-saving masks. Tell us all that we've already entered the light when we can plainly see the darkness.

It's beyond serious, America. Democracy and lives are at stake. Vote as if your whole future depended on it because, in this pivotal year, we need leaders who don't ignore science or global warming or pandemics--we need to be so over blowhards whose only skill is to make a bunch of pointless public noise.

The neutral image that would be the main one in normal times. But 2020 is not normal times. Start of the debate, they look different ways and see very different worlds--but most of us live in the one that Kamala sees.

Hmm. the debate? Kamala won, fly or no fly. I sure hope Biden does, too. In a giant blue wave. Make ’em squeal and send Joni Ernst back home, too.

Yet, a blue wave will not instantly fix things. I said Kamala was a derecho, and she was in the debate, but in governing, Trump is the relentless, destructive storm who won’t stop blowing. It will take years to recover from his damage. His shit will be around for quite a while.

It's too much for one fly to handle.