So my thoughts on the first Trump/Biden debate are these:
I don't think either candidate did themselves any favors last night. It didn't appear either of them really had a debate strategy, but rather were content to enter the ring and slug it out come what may.
Fortunately, the election, much like the election in 2016, is less about the candidate and more about the ideology. Which, in my opinion, should be the case for most elections. Biden has been a face in the Democratic party for decades, but he really hasn't done anything meaningful that has shifted the party platform, and he wouldn't as President. He's a figurehead at best. A yes man, if you give him the benefit of the doubt that he's not a complete moron and sadly really losing his faculties with age.
As for Trump, he has most certainly shifted the Republican Party probably more than any President since Lincoln, but even then, still espouses mostly what the party stands for, even if he doesn't do it with much tact. The campaign promises he has kept from 2016 should make any Republican (and Christian) proud: Appoint Conservative judges to the courts -- especially the Supreme Court, which was worth his election in and of itself -- lower taxes, lower unemployment, boost the economy, defeat ISIS, defend gun rights, defend freedom of religion, and prop up Israel. Those accomplishments alone should make Republicans vote for him again, and they will.
But even a man as powerful as Donald Trump is still speaking for a greater movement at large. We're not voting for Donald Trump: We're voting for what Trump promised, and so far, he's delivered.
As such, I doubt last night's performance swayed any voters one way or the other, and I suspect the subsequent debates won't do so either. If you're a Biden fan, you probably thought he did well, and stood up well to the Trump bully. Showed a little hutzpah even, gettin' a little down and dirty. If you're a Trump fan, you probably thought he did well, which is to say, he did what he's done all along, which is be bombastic and fight. All in all, it really went about how I thought it would go.
Clearly, Biden lost his way a few times. His opening salvo on the Supreme Court issue that devolved into a relatively incoherent rambling about healthcare literally made me look at my wife and say, "Wow, that didn't take long." He's clearly a man that is too advanced in years to do the job, but otherwise he held up OK I suppose. I think anybody who watched him last night has to know he's starting to lose his capacities. To what extent at this point is hard to say, but does anybody really believe he can hold it together for four more years?
As for Trump, there's no question that the constant, daily barrage from the media and the Left has jaded him. He's fed up with it, and it shows. He should be, by the way, as he's taken a beating in the job the likes of which we've never seen in our history. His detractors might say, well, you know, it's a tough job and it comes with the territory. But not this. This is unprecedented and unfair, period, no matter how you feel about the man personally. I mean, he's been nominated for 3 Nobel Peace Prizes so far, but our American press portrays him as the Devil himself.
Which is why most of the country doesn't trust the media anymore. We see through the nonsense and the lies. And I can't blame Trump for lashing out the way he did last night. He's tired, for instance, of the media totally ignoring the absurdity of the Hunter Biden mess. There's clearly some shady stuff that went on there, with millions of dollars being passed around, and the media is literally ignoring it. They have to. Because they know if they cover any of it, even if any of it ultimately proves to be untrue, the mere mention of it will sink Biden. So Trump is tired of that kind of hypocrisy, and he should be. I know I am.
I could go on and speak on the various points, but I don't think it's necessary. Neither candidate said anything last night that was earth shattering to their base -- outside of Biden claiming he doesn't support the Green New Deal. That's going to hurt him with his base. Otherwise, we didn't learn anything last night we didn't already know.
So I'd say things remain as they were. Through everything in the past four years, the only people the Left has alarmed with their incessant attacks on Trump are their own constituents who already hate him. They haven't swayed nary an iota of Trump voters away. Mostly, they've emboldened them. And if anything, some of the nastiness has swayed away some minority voters. They're tired of being used as pawns, and are smart enough to see through the muck. Plus, Trump has done more economically and job-wise for minorities so far in his term than Dems have done in well over 50 years. If just a few percentage points of minority voters move to Trump -- and that's highly likely -- its curtains for the Democrats.
Speaking as a Trump voter, he's done, so far, exactly what I elected him to do. So I'm good, and so is the vast majority of his base.
So my prediction remains: Don't believe the polls. They're all lies, just as they were in 2016. (Remember, the polls still showed Hillary winning the day of the election.) It'll be Trump in a landslide in November.
P.S. We'll talk about the ramifications of mail-in voting and the complete chaos it's going to create in this election in another upcoming blog.
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