It probably did not change a lot of minds, but Kamala Harris did so much better than Joe Biden in his debate. We have the right candidate.
Now, I don’t want to disparage Joe Biden in any way. His recent debate performance notwithstanding, Joe has been a great president. He has been, in my opinion, better than expected. And history will be very kind to him.
Trump, who was relatively contained temperamentally, offered his usual firehose of lies, some of them completely ridiculous. Like his repeating the ludicrous claim that Haitian immigrants are “eating pets and wildlife” in Springfield, Ohio.
(Why Springfield Ohio? Who the fuck knows.)
Other notable things:
- Trump could not say that he is in favor of Ukraine winning the war.
- Trump repeated the complete lie that “some Democratic leaders” want “babies to be able to be killed after birth.” (That would be murder in every state of the union.)
- Trump repeated the false claim that immigrants that noncitizens are being sought to vote.
- Trump claimed that “everyone knows she’s a Marxist,” which is, of course, completely ludicrous.
- Trump claimed that “everyone” wanted the abortion question returned to the states, which is, of course, completely ludicrous.
- Nine years later, Trump still does not have a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, as he promised he would.
- The only world leader Trump could name who supports him is Viktor Orban.
The most fun part of the night was when Kamala baited Trump about his own rallies. After inviting voters to attend one of his rallies (and noting that Trump talks about things like Hannibal Lecter and windmills causing cancer) she said that if you attended a rally you would notice “that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.” And then she added “the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams and your desires.”
And you could see how that rattled Donald Trump.
Again, it probably did not change a lot of minds, but at least Harris appeared to be competent, tough, clear-eyed and even presidential. And that’s what she needed to do.
