Pick a Little, Talk a Little

I love watching politics.  Election Night is like a near-religious event to me, one that I watch alone without the distraction of others partying and filling the room with angst.  I even like watching debates.  (Not the group-fests during the primaries that are less "debates" and more a series of campaign statements, but the one-on-ones.) As last night's debate neared, however, I grew less interested in watching.  Nearing 50 million people have already voted.  Only about 6% of the public are undecided.  And as "fun" as watching a circus might be if it's an actual circus, it's sort of soul-crushing with a presidential candidate on a debate stage when you're hoping to see an exchange of ideas.

I did watch last night -- for a while.  Maybe 45 minutes, and then too much air had gotten sucked out of the room.  There's a limit to how much lies a person can take -- and not just lies but weirdness, like Trump accusing Joe Biden about something having to do with making pillows and sheets, and raking in tens of millions of dollars from China and getting millions of dollars from Russia and being so incredibly rich that he had homes all over the place and that he was the greatest president for black people other than Abraham Lincoln, and maybe even better than Lincoln, and low-IQs of undocumented immigrants who follow the law, and how polluting wind power is -- and that he told his accountant to release his tax returns soon.  And that's just the weirdness, not the basic everyday lies -- especially about COVID-19, like how there will be a vaccine in weeks, and that he did a great job, it's rounding the corner and is going to just go away (as numbers spike as the cold weather nears) and we're learning to live with it (bring perhaps Biden's best comment, that we're learning to die with it), and many people say he's now supposedly immune after having tested positive and that Dr. Fauci has often been wrong and is probably  Democrat and that the blue states run by Democrats are infected worse, and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on -- about immigration, too, and child separation (blaming it on "the coyotes" and how all the children were very well taken care of in wonderful accommodations -- experts have called it torture and child abuse -- and even virtually blaming it all on the Obama Administration, while callously ignoring the 545 children whose parents can't be found) and renewable energy and on and on and on and on and on and on and on...

...and eventually I just couldn't take it anymore and just started channel surfing.  I watching a bit of Live from Lincoln Center, The Closer, Shark Tank, Law & Order and football.  I did turn back to the table several times and probably watched 15 minutes of the final 45.  It was just on the the good side of sucking the air out of the world.

I do acknowledge that I was surprised that Trump felt constricted enough by the new rules that he generally stuck to them and was more low-key than I expected. But that just allowed him to focus more on the relentless lying, rather than the bullying bluster.  I thought Joe Biden did a highly admirable job not getting sucked into Trump World and doing his best to stick to facts and, as often as possible, talk directly to the audience.  That said, there were times when I wished he used at least some of his time explaining the most egregious of Trump's lies, more than just "That's not true."  That said, there's something effective of a simple "That's not true" high road in the face of a non-stop posturing liar.  Especially in face of "dueling families," when Biden turned to the public to talk about their families. 

​I also thought that, while moderator Kristen Welker did a solid job moving things along, my one quibble is I also thought she too often let Trump say, "One more thing" and hijack her efforts to add in some more lies -- while more often moving on after Biden had been attacked without getting as many chances to respond since he was more polite about demanding the chance to reply.

When watching, I had no idea how this will play with the public.  Some may like that Trump wasn't off-his-rocker crazy.  Most may hate how Trump was still saying COVID-19 will just go away.  Some may believe Trump's unrelenting lies.  Some may have recognized that far too many of his worst lies were too weird.  Personally, I thought Biden was solid and did better.  And polls show the public agreed, saying that Biden won the debate 53-39%.  And that's terrible news for Trump.  The biggest problem he had going into this debate is that he's behind in the polls nationally and in most critical battleground states and has to win over voters -- and many people were probably turned off by the first debate and didn't watch.  And only 6% are undecided.  And almost 50 million people have already voted.  And however much he attacked Joe Biden with his unending lies, he didn't make much of a case for his vision of the future or defense of his current job as the incumbent.  And that's what Trump had to do.  Had to.  Win over new voters.  Win back suburban women and seniors  He had to get them back.  And at the very best, I think the results won't change how people vote.  But given all these the conditions, that's horrible for Trump, with only 11 days to Election Day.  At the very worst, most undecided voters -- who were undecided because Trump hadn't yet make the case why they should re-elect him -- probably didn't get an answer to that.  And as a result will move over to the Biden column.  And that seems the likeliest possibility because those initial debate polls shows that Joe Biden won the debate 53-39%. Which is the very opposite of what Trump needed.  Terrible news for him.

Maybe there was something else in the debate that leaped out.  But if so, I missed it because there are limits to how much hell I'll put myself through watching...