Last night, Donald Trump actually behaved himself. That doesn’t mean Trump haters did not find reasons to consider him insufferable. It just means what it says; he was not a boorish ass.
If the debate were a boxing match, there are two things to note; 1) The fight went the distance, and 2) Trump won on points. Based on how tired and confused Mr. Biden looked by the end of the event, if he really were a boxer, he most likely would have announced his retirement.
So does it mean anything? First, let’s look at the numbers. In 2016, some 55% of eligible voters cast a ballot. That amounts to approximately 138,000,000 Americans. (Well, let’s be optimistic and assume they were all Americans.) This year, 47,000,000 Americans have already voted. That is fully 10,000,000 more people than had voted early at this point in time 4 years ago. To extrapolate that number out, it could mean that the number of people who vote this year may approach 175,000,000.
So you see, that is what people can do with numbers! 175,000,000 Americans probably won’t vote, but something is happening. The exit polls are bi-polar. On one hand, they indicate that Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, and there is a motivated democrat base that is turning out to vote solely predicated on its detestation of the President. On the other, there are indications that the numbers of people who turn out for President Trump will even exceed what we witnessed in 2016.
General consensus is that somewhere between 5-7% of those who intend to vote are still undecided. While that seems small, when one considers that Biden leads Trump in most battleground states by margins of 4-6%, that undecided voter population suddenly becomes very important.
My takeaway on the debate is that Mr. Biden and his advisors have decided they are so far ahead that there is absolutely no reason to take chances of messing thing up by actually going out and campaigning! Last night, it was clear that Mr. Biden wanted to impart the message that the election is about character and integrity. Hmmmm, interesting. The problem for Mr. Biden is that for those who take the time to study this man, character and integrity are not words synonymous with Mr. Biden’s record. The former Vice President has been caught out distorting the truth about his accomplishments on numerous occasions over his career, and let’s not forget his infamous Neil Kinnock “lapse” back in 1988. (Click here if you have forgotten!)
So if character is the lynchpin of his campaign, will his past, the Hunter Biden laptop and Navy Lt. Tony Bobulinski’s (a lifelong democrat) revelations make that 5-7 per cent undecided group think twice about a vote for Biden? Don’t answer me if you have already voted for Biden or plan to. I know you are not changing your mind, no matter what inconvenient facts are surfacing on a day to day basis. But if you are undecided, I would like to hear from you.
Last night, Mr. Biden flat out lied twice. Well, I know of two mistruths. He said he has never come out against fracking. That simply is not true. He challenged President Trump to prove it. This morning the Trump campaign released a short video showing Mr. Biden saying (multiple times) he would ban fracking. (See Newsweek article here.) The Trump campaign needs to make sure voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio understand what Biden’s policies mean to their states.
On the issue of his son’s laptop, he had the opportunity to take the high road, and say he has never been involved in any untoward foreign transactions, and move on. Instead, he blamed the Russians! Will the main stream media actually continue to support that charade? It was a weak, weak moment. He should be held accountable. The Director of National Intelligence (corroborated by the FBI) has already confirmed their is no evidence of any connection between Russia and the information on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The China story is not going away. It may not pick up steam until after the election, but we will learn more at some point down the road.
On Covid-19, I think all of us watching the debate grew weary of how much time was taken talking about the virus. Here are the two take-aways- 1) Joe Biden attacked and attacked but could not say how his administration would have done anything substantively different, and 2) the President made it very clear we must re-open the economy and schools as a top priority, and the former Veep not only promised a dark winter, but did not close the door on the possibility of shutting things down again. Unlike Mr. Biden, Americans cannot afford to stay in their basements forever.
We don’t know how this will turn out. Things don’t look good for the President or, for that matter, the GOP led Senate. But stranger things have happened. It will be an interesting 10 days.
As always, please let me know your thoughts.
More to follow-