The Post Debate Clean Up Edition

The Coop Scoop: The Post Debate Clean Up Edition.

September 29, 2020
Issue #38

I don’t even know how to properly respond to the gross shit show I just experienced.

So, I will make this short and sweet with a dash of bitterness, disgust, sadness and revulsion.

The post-debate CBS poll shows a 48-41 percent advantage for Biden winning the debate.

That’s what I would have guessed. And it bolsters my view that this debate, as horrifying as it was, will not change the dynamics of the election – one that Donald Trump is markedly losing.

That said: This demeaning spectacle has shown Trump to be a vicious lying bully who has no respect for the truth, for democratic institutions, the electorate and for that matter for the presidency itself.

Biden also lived up to his stereotype. Yes, he was right to come off as calmer and more civil. Yet, he missed a golden opportunity to not only deliver a knockout, he wasn’t even prepared to land some very important punches. He was weak, weak, weak.

Chris Wallace was a disgrace. He let himself get steamrolled by Crazy Trump and did not have the wherewithal to call a time out, soundly scold Trump for blatantly breaking the ground rules and warn him he would not tolerate any more interrupting or the debate would end.

There will be the usual bedwetting over this show tonight by some eternally-worried Democrats and others will go to the other wrong extreme and manufacture excuses for Biden’s sub-par and disappointing performance. And it WAS a very poor performance.

That said, we need to put the debate in context of the bigger picture.

Trump went into this debate solidly losing the election, trailing Biden by as many as 8 points nationally, losing in virtually all of the swing states, and beginning to lose in recently solid-red Ohio and even Iowa.

The burden tonight was on Trump to dramatically turn around the dynamic and staunch the political bleeding he is going through among suburban voters. As far as I can discern, he completely failed. Acting like a an out-of-control 10-year-old, and bulldozing everybody in sight, is going to go over in the suburbs like Hitler’s Bar Mitzvah.

Talking about more rakes as an answer to climate change was in itself enough to turn off any undecideds remotely contemplating a vote for him.

Trump came not to debate, but rather to muck it up. He is incapable of debating any serious ideas so this was his only and very predictable recourse. What was not predictable, was to exactly what degree he would shit all over the match up and show such disdain for any serious approach to any serious issue. He did nothing but interrupt, rant, bully and lie. To paraphrase him as well as Biden, is he what he is and ain’t nuthin’ gonna change that.

Biden could have been and should have been much better prepared to withstand this assault. He should have not tried to out-talk Biden but rather should have insisted on being given time to make his case and have put more pressure on Wallace to stop this charade.

Some folks are congratulating Biden for keeping his cool. A dead man on ice would have also been cool. Except for a few brief flashes around the attacks on his family, Biden showed almost NO passion, no indignation, no firmness. His uncritical defenders say this passivity is a plus when faced by an irrational assailant like Trump. I disagree. Biden just fumbled the opportunity to blow Trump out of the water when he’s barely afloat and struggling.

Any comms expert in or outside of government knows that one needs to prepare the handful of affirmative statements you want to make, ignore what questions are thrown your way, and just give your prepared statements disguised as your answers.

Biden, however, went right down several rabbit holes with Trump’s wild accusations and allegations and a few times he sort of got lost as he inaudibly whispered. Instead, he should have had two or three VERY strong statements to make on Trump’s taxes and especially on COVID. He did not.

Frankly, I thought Wallace’s questions were a bigger challenge to Trump than most of Biden’s ripostes.

This nadir in American democracy should never be repeated. It’s now time for Democrats and Biden to refuse any more debates with the current sociopath in the White House…a totally legitimate and just position that Americans will gleefully accept. Trump has disqualified himself as a participant in the two remaining “debates.” At a minimum, as former Obama advisor David Plouffe said tonight, the Biden campaign should use the next ten days making a fuss about the role of moderators in the coming debate and iron-clad rules that would silence one candidate's mic while the other is answering. When Trump refuses...just pull the plug.

And thanks to Biden’s limp performance, those of us who oppose Trump will have to do some extra work to make sure to pull Joe across the finish line first.

I think we will. But he certainly did not make it any easier tonight. +++