It’s interesting to note that when a debate is fairly moderated and tough questions also go to Joe Biden, the president wins hands down. The citizens of Nashville certainly think so.
https://twitter.com/realDerekUtley/status/1319487222576566273?s=19
It was no knockout punch for Trump. But it was more than enough of a convincing win to stop any bleed and put the campaign back on a right track. The president’s mantras of “All talk, no action” in referring to Biden, and Trump’s repeated references to Biden’s 8 years in office under Obama, scored well. Biden seemed to be trying a rope-a-dope strategy, hoping the president would say something outrageous. Trump did not oblige him.
Biden took solid hits on fracking and Russian money. He blatantly lied when asked if he’d ever been for a fracking ban. But sadly for him, there is video proof he said just that. He also went after the fossil fuel industry. That will not help him in Pennsylvania or Ohio.
Then he said his family never took Russian money. The Senate has already proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Trump was cooly relentless, as we hoped he would be, on the Biden Burisma emails. Biden dodged, but it was clumsily done and slow-witted. Biden also, in a very bizarre line, claimed the United States got along well with Adolf Hitler before WWII. That would be news to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
The president did take the bait on his personal taxes, the only time he did so the entire evening. He waited too long to pivot to Biden’s financial corruption and got a bit flustered. He quickly recovered his composure.
Biden made himself look completely out to lunch on the minimum wage question, even at one time claiming that firefighters and police officers make $15 an hour. He also thinks that raising the minimum wage boosts employment. Yeah, he’s daft.
On Covid-19 Biden was ghoulish, emphasizing deaths like the grim reaper and charging the Trump administration with make believe crimes. The president handled himself well on this subject.
The biggest surprise of the night was the relative fairness of debate moderator Kristen Welker. She made Wallace, Scully, and Guthrie look like amateurs. She asked tough questions of both candidates and hit Biden hard more than once. Though sadly, her questions on race and climate change were predicated on left wing agitprop. President Trump, in responding to questions on race, must stop comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln. It is absurd bravado that does him no favors with voters.
The president won tonight and that will help him. But the heavy lifting remains to be done. From now to election day, and probably after, it’s a sprint through ballots and the courts at least until December. More likely, January.
This piece was written by David Kamioner on October 23, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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