Trump/Harris Debate

The debate last night between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris might have been one of the most important Presidential debates in history.

It did not rise to that importance because people needed to see Donald Trump and understand his position on the issues any better.

It was important because so few people had ever had the opportunity to see Kamala Harris for an extended period of time.

It goes without saying that there has not been a Presidential candidate in my lifetime that has had less exposure to the voters and so little scrutiny from the media.

Some of this is due to the fact that she never was on the ballot in the Democrat primary in either 2020 or 2024.

The rest is intentional in that it seems that her campaign strategy has been based on avoiding interviews, media appearances and press conferences at all costs.

There is a pretty good record of the positions and beliefs that Kamala held in 2019 when she first attempted to run for the 2020 Democrat nomination before dropping out due to meager support in preference polls.

Axios chronicled some of these past positions and the extent she seems to be running away from them today.

Credit: https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/1832085835266883816

She has also adopted the campaign slogan "A New Way Forward" to suggest to the voters that she has not been at the right hand of Joe Biden the last four years.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/KamalaHarris/posts/now-is-the-time-to-chart-a-new-way-forwardto-build-an-america-where-everyones-wo/1057709232382180/

Harris finally put some policy positions on her campaign website on the eve of the convention under the mantle of that "A New Way Forward" slogan.

A New Way Forward?

Kamala has been VP for the last four years.

The Democrats have held the Presidency for 12 of the last 16 years.

Kamala is suggesting that she is a change agent.

A favorite line in her speeches is "we are not going back".

However, Bret Baier of Fox News points out that portions of her platform were simply copied and pasted from Biden's campaign page as evidenced by the page's source code.

Kamala Harris is well known for her fervent support for progressive, woke and far-left causes.

In the past, she has been in favor of defunding the police, decriminalizing illegal immigration, criticizing the border wall, supporting reparations, legalizing all drugs (including heroin and fentanyl) and using taxpayer funds to pay for transgender surgeries for detained illegal immigrants.

This is CNN (yes, CNN!)  reporting on some of the positions that Harris had on immigration in 2019.

Is any of this mentioned in her policy positions today?

How about her love of all woke causes?

Link to video 

What happened to everybody needed to be woke?

Consider this text analysis of the policy positions on her campaign website.

Anything woke has gone missing.

However, America and Americans have suddenly become more important than illegal immigrants.

In other words, expect Kamala to say anything to win this campaign.

Why does Kamala Harris and her advisers feel the need to hide and revise her true values, positions and beliefs in this campaign?

Bernie Sanders himself said the quiet part out loud when asked about why Kamala is no longer talking about the issues like she used to.

Has she abandoned her progressive ideals?

Bernie says not to worry. She is just doing that to win and we will get the real Kamala if she is elected.

Link to video

The challenge for Trump last night was to attempt to expose Kamala Harris for what she is to the voters.

It is a task that should not be his alone.

That is why we are supposed to have a free and vigilant press.

However, consider the coverage of the candidates by the ABC nightly newscast of David Muir thus far according to the Media Research Center/

Muir was also one of the debate moderators last night.

Source: https://x.com/mitchellvii/status/1833195276598730981

Considering all of the above, Donald Trump went into the debate with a challenging set of circumstances.

It was akin to trying to corral a slippery eel in a vat of WD-40 while wearing gloves coated in vaseline.

FULL DISCLOSURE---I wrote all of the content above before the debate so I would not be up to 2am this morning writing this blog. What follows below are my reactions to the debate.

Kamala Harris was that slippery.

There was no evidence of the cackling, far-left progressive on the stage last night.

It was if she had just been placed on earth last night to save the United States from all its ills and Donald Trump.

There was no evidence of that committed far-left progressive.

Donald Trump had the difficult job of trying to stay composed but also putting Kamala on defense for both her past positions and for her job as VP with Joe Biden.

The bottom line---Trump spent too much time defending his record and himself rather than getting Kamala Harris to defend herself in the debate last night.

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Whatever goes on in these debates the reality is that most people have made up their minds before either candidate says a word.

For example, in the Trump-Biden debate, as abysmal as was Biden's performance, the polls only moved a point or two in Trump's favor.

Source: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-trump-june-debate-poll/

My sense of the debate was that Trump failed to do what he needed to do in putting Harris on the defensive about her past positions and her record as VP.

He was too defensive regarding the attacks by Harris and repeated too many talking points on the economy, immigration and that we are failing as a nation under the leadership of Biden/Harris. He had many missed opportunities where he could have scored points on a range of topics but kept repeating the same lines where he could have exposed Kamala's record and flip flops.

Kamala was a slippery eel and to uniformed voters I am sure her messages sounded good. She came across as polished and prepared even though there was very little substance in anything she said regarding her policies.

She said she would explain her flip-flops on a number of issues but only spoke to one---fracking. However, she really gave no substantive reason for her change in position.

She was measured and spent most of the night suggesting that Donald Trump was unhinged and crazy and that she would be a uniter (we seem to get that talking point with every Democrat candidate) and be the President for everyone. (Does that also include the 20+ million illegal immigrants who are here?)

Never mind that Trump was President for four years without the world blowing up in war, runaway inflation, the border being overrun or the American standard of living falling like it has over the Biden/Harris years.

It should also be noted that ABC's moderators were not as fair and balanced as we saw in the CNN debate in June.

They were quick to "fact check" Trump but not once did they attempt to do the same to Harris.

We will see where this leads over the next days and weeks in the polls.

Two pollsters with good records in the past came to different conclusions in polls done right after the debate.

Trafalgar had Harris winning 55%-43%

Democracy Institute had Trump as the winner.

Source: https://www.the-express.com/news/politics/148368/who-won-presidential-tv-debate-harris-trump-poll

I generally don't put much stock in polls taken right after the debate. You get a more read on how the debate shaped views over the next week or so as people talk among their friends and neighbors.

Interestingly, the Harris campaign has already called for a second debate in October after consistently refusing another debate when it was offered to them previously.

That tells me that they feel good about Kamala's performance last night but they must also have some real concerns about her standing in their internal polls.

If they were really confident about where she stands why risk it?

In addition, will we see Kamala do any interviews and press conferences or will she go back to the basement again?

It all says that there is still a long path ahead to November 5.