Trump won on the issues …
… but lost the debate. The President was petulant, angry, and unlikeable. Unpresidential after all these four years.
Second takeaway: Joe Biden is not senile — the desperate line of attack that Tucker Carlson (in particular) has been pushing for months. The former veep was sharp, stayed on message, looked voters in the eye and spoke to them. Trump, despite innumerable interruptions, could not rattle him. Anyways, Biden did not pee himself, insofar as we know.
Doesn’t mean Trump is wrong on the issues — he’s not. Biden could not/would not answer a key question — would he eschew packing the Supreme Court? Trump scored again when he pointed out that law enforcement endorses him, not the Democrat. He landed a haymaker when he pointed out that Biden had never used his influence with Democrats to restore order in dysfunctional Portland and other cities. The Hunter Biden card is potent. Keep playing it.
The Left is all a-twitter over Trump’s comment, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” The Left is always certain brown shirts are staging a putsch in a beer hall somewhere near you. A fair reading of the statement is “stand back and stand (aside).” It is the Left that is staging the kristallnacht, demanding the proper salute, and terrorizing neighborhoods. It is also fair to ask that if police are standing back and standing aside, who is left to defend life and property?
In any event, the indentured servants at Stately Blaska Manor backed away from the b&w Philco with 15 minutes left in the debate. Anyone know if it devolved into fisticuffs?
Biden’s best line, to Trump: “Shut up, man.”
Pundit quote of the Day: “Watching Trump was like being cornered by some over-sized, over-bearing drunk at a party who spills his beer on you while insisting that Lee Harvey Oswald is still alive.” — never-Trumper Bret Stephens, (failing) New York Times.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: We do like a fighter but Trump could learn from The Greatest: float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Instead, the President was a rhinoceros with a sledge hammer. ADDED: Chris Wallace was fair (the Far Left hated him as much as did my friends on the Right) but he could have just dropped the puck and let the two duke it out. Please do not censor debates!
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
CNN’s Dana Bash finally got sumthin’ right: “A real S***Show”….
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Although I am an Independent, the last election was a total “hold my nose and vote” scenario for me. To me, Trump was a vain, loudmouthed boor — not to mention a jerk and a bully — and the Clintons seemed like lying sleazeballs who carelessly “used and abused” people in their relentless pursuit of personal gain. Trump’s treatment of women was repugnant to me, as was Hillary performing the “Catholic bishop’s role” in covering up for Slick Willie’s sexual escapades. Only Hillary took it one step further than the bishops and aggressively attacked Bill’s victims, trying to destroy their reputations. Don’t even get me started on the games she played with her private server. One op ed piece I read called her “more secretive than Nixon.” It seemed clear that both candidates seemed to have plenty of skeletons rattling around in their closets which would not withstand the light of day.
In this great country we have thousands of people with incredible leadership gifts, employing these gifts in countless ways for nonprofits, schools, businesses, and local and state government. Why, I wondered at the time, did none of these fine people rise to the top and become presidential candidates? How was this great nation left with two such dismal choices?
And now I am asking the same question again. Biden lies about his resume, his credentials, and his and Hunter’s role in the Ukraine, and Trump seems to lie — or engage in hyperbole — about almost everything. Not only has Trump proven himself to be far less “presidential” and far more vain, thin-skinned, impulsive, bullying, ill-informed and self-aggrandizing than I had ever imagined (while the hapless Republicans look like deer in the headlights), but the radical lurch leftward of the Democrats (and Biden’s swift submission) threatens the very foundational values and institutions of the country I hold so dear. So once again I stare at my ballot, stomach lurching, and am forced to ponder: which candidate scares me the most and which one scares me the least?
Being an Independent is a tough gig.
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STD(Diane),
Fine encapsulation but as a fellow independent it is not a tough call at all because the left has become an existential threat and Trump (minus his lousy personality) is doing an excellent job especially considering the relentless 24/7 composite of forces actively aligned against him unlike any President before him.
Just vote policy and Trump’s record~~~> it is a no-brainer.
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Batman,
Right on!
I tell people this: Even if you don’t like Trump or refuse to acknowledge his accomplishments, at least consider what a Biden presidency would look like.
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Superb analysis of the past & present dilemma, Diane. Every word you wrote is heartfelt and gut wrenching. And, sigh, true.
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“In this great country we have thousands of people with incredible leadership gifts, employing these gifts in countless ways for nonprofits, schools, businesses, and local and state government. Why, I wondered at the time, did none of these fine people rise to the top and become presidential candidates? How was this great nation left with two such dismal choices?”
Two reasons:
1. A deep state (including the media) that doesn’t allow for the type of leader you describe. They want someone they can control.
2. The landscape has become so toxic and dangerous that good people don’t want to expose themselves and their families.
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Liberty, I’ve read all your posts on this thread several times and agree with pretty much all you’ve said. The only exception, and it’s not minor, is your claim that Trump’s behavior was in character and something we should have expected. I don’t have encyclopedic knowledge of all of Trump’s press conferences, but I’ve seen a good number of them, and I don’t ever recall anything that would have prepared me for what I saw during the few minutes I could stomach (probably 10 minutes max.) In fact, all of his skill as a debater, including his masterly sense of comedic timing, was completely absent. I have NEVER seen something coming from him like this before. It makes me seriously wonder whether he isn’t subconsciously trying to lose the election because he’s just can’t face the idea of having to face four more years of the hell he’s been subjected to since the first day he was put in office. Could anyone blame him? And yes, there may well be input from Melania going on in this regard as well. All I can say is that when future assessments are written, Trump’s unbelievable strength over the last four years will have to be front and center in any accurate portrayal of this man.
But what a terrible way to go out. Seems to me he should have followed LBJ’s example if this is the case. And yes, many of us will still vote for him, given how untenable Biden -ie: an unbelievably corrupt Democratic Party- is.
One other disappointment for me during the few minutes I listened, BTW, did regard policy. This was the weakness I was hearing from him regarding the Covid issue. At a time when more people are finally waking up to what some of us believe is perhaps the single most massive fraud in human history, he now is going the other way? https://www.aier.org/article/open-letter-from-medical-doctors-and-health-professionals-to-all-belgian-authorities-and-all-belgian-media/ Instead of using this international platform to promote the balanced and informed position of his disgracefully censored health advisor, Dr Scott Atlas https://www.hoover.org/research/doctor-scott-atlas-and-efficacy-lockdowns-social-distancing-and-closings, he’s actually citing a guy like Fauchi who I thought he has been fighting with for months? Science is now finally catching up with Trump’s early instincts, and yet he’s now heading the other way?
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Amos,
You may be overthinking your analysis of Trump’s performance but I agree with the rest of your comment. Trump may not have prepared much because of his duties, appeared fatigued, probably because of his work load and the relentless collective negative energy directed at him, and figured he was going to be confronting a mind gimp but instead Joe’s docs got his med dosage figured out just in time. Second debate will be more revealing, if Joe shows up.
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Batman – Replying here because I don’t see a method to do it directly to your comment.
You could be right about the not caring if he loses analysis, although I do think it’s possible. For example, I doubt that he’s under any illusion that he can keep the economy going for another four years, and I’m thinking he’d prefer that this mess be left for the next guy to take the blame. I also don’t think being president is helping his personal life at all.
Yes, the Biden thing is indeed interesting, and I agree that the second debate could be
more revealing. Still amazed, given what we’ve all seen of his cognitive decline over the past year, that he was able to pull this one off so brilliantly.
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I could never vote for Open Borders. That alone is enough.
I could never vote for “defunding” police.
I could never vote for anyone who advocates reparations and supports critical race theory.
Bidens’ multiple financial crimes must be exposed.
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Biden won easily……….Trump off the wall.
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That’s your opinion, Robert, and you’re entitled to it, but millions of people feel differently.
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