"The Debate"

Sydney M. Williams

30 Bokum Road – Apartment 314

Essex, CT 06426

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“The Debate”

October 1, 2020

 

“I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just
to sit there and agree with me; that’s not their job.”

Margaret Thatcher (`1925- 2013)

Interview, 1980

The Telegraph

 

When I awoke on Wednesday morning, I received the following from a friend, a former British jurist now retired and living in Switzerland: “There can be no greater symbol of American decline than the sight of those two elderly gentlemen slugging it out without dignity or sell-restraint.”

 

It is hard to disagree with my friend’s assessment, and it is remarkable how far removed from Margaret Thatcher we have come. While it is likely that Mr. Trump did not pick up undecided voters, I suspect more damage was done to Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump played the role he has played for the past four and a half years – a crude, unabashed disruptor of political norms. On the other hand, Joe Biden, who has been largely invisible for the last few months, confirmed concerns of those who worry about his mental acuity. While most of his comments and answers were lucid, he stumbled over words and phrases, and his eyes, especially as time went on, took on a glazed, empty look. Mr. Trump is rude, while Mr. Biden is not well. The first we have known for years; the second we are just realizing.

 

In what I thought was one of the better analyses of the debate, Conrad Black, in the New York Sun, wrote: “President Trump could have won decisively if he had just followed Napoleon’s famous advice not to ‘interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.’” While Mr. Biden was effective when he spoke to the camera, when he spoke for longer than a minute or so, his clarity became befogged, and he stumbled over what words came next. Thus, President Trump’s interruptions saved him from further embarrassment.

 

Issues remain: COVID-19, the economy; riots in blue-run cities versus law and order, the Supreme Court, climate and the Green New Deal, illegal immigration, China, Russia and the Middle East. While voters know where Mr. Trump stands on these issues and what he has done, they received little insight as to what Mr. Biden would do. Mr. Trump was accused for not condemning far-right, white supremacists. That is not precisely true if one reads the transcript. Interestingly, Chris Wallace did not ask Mr. Biden to condemn left-wing extremists like Antifa, which is an “idea, not an organization,” according to Mr. Biden.

 

Trump was Trump, so probably did not lose many supporters. On the other hand, Biden, at times, looked frail and confused, though he did manage to cross the finish line. The fact that handshakes are forbidden in this time of COVID-19 removed even the perception of unity and civility. 

 

There were no winners in Tuesday’s brawl in Cleveland between two aging white men, but there were losers – the American people.