After

I have to admit having been a little nervous before tuning in to the debate the other night. All those years as a disappointed Chicago sports fans must have served me well as my motto in anticipating the outcome of practically anything I care about is this: hope for the best, plan for the worst.

That way I'm never disappointed.

Well, it turns out I had little to worry about.

Granted there were things I wished the Vice President had done better: answer more questions directly for one, be a little more hesitant with spouting BS (like bringing up Trump's "good people on both sides" and  "bloodbath" comments which were both taken out of context), and missed opportunities by not nailing the exPOTUS down more on issues like the economy, which he is obviously clueless about.

On the other hand...

Complaining about all that is a little like having your football team win the game 60-0 and then complaining about your quarterback throwing an interception late in the fourth quarter isn't it?

But, on the other hand...

Taking that sports metaphor one step further, one game does not a season make. Or a more familiar metaphor, we may have won the battle, but the war is far from over. 

If you expected a reprise of the Lincoln-Douglas debates the other night, you were certainly disappointed. 

Which is perhaps why this first, and probably only debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump, despite being by any reasonable measure a hand's down, slam dunk, gob smackingly devastating victory for Harris, didn't move the poll needle significantly in either direction. 

Judging by what I heard in post-debate interviews with still undecided voters in swing states, that's because neither candidate made a very good case for his or her plan for the number one issue on their mind, inflation.

I think the bottom line for lots of these voters is this: when Trump was president, their lives were better, while under Biden/Harris, their lives are worse. Yes, that's a myopic point of view but since these folks are really the only people who matter as far as the outcome of the election goes, their concerns must be addressed.

Regarding that, I believe Harris missed a golden opportunity at the very first question she received which was, "When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?" 

As is so often the case in debates like these, she didn't answer the question (admittedly a tough one) but sketched out her economic plan for bolstering the Middle Class, while slamming her opponent's one-size-fits-all solution to our economic problems, stiff tariffs on all imported goods.

All well and good but here's what she might also have said:

Four years ago, we were in the middle of a pandemic which took the lives of over one million of our fellow citizens. Second only to the unspeakable human tragedy, COVID also devastated our economy. Millions of Americans lost their jobs as the unemployment rate doubled, and the annual growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product was in negative territory for the first time in thirty years. 

And yes, during COVID, gas prices were low. Do you know why? Because no one was driving and the demand for gasoline was practically zero, while the supply went through the roof. That's basic supply and demand economics, it got so bad that for a time, if you had a barrel of oil to sell, you had to pay someone to take it off your hands. 

That was the state of the United States economy when Joe Biden and I were sworn into office in 2021. At the time, economists across the board predicted a recession at the very least if not a depression. Now I'm the first to admit that the recovery from the pandemic has been slow and bumpy at times, and things, especially the inflation rate, which by the way is a worldwide problem, is still too high. But we are continuing to work on it and inflation which has been declining over the past few years, is at a point now where it's low enough that the Fed is on the brink of lowering interest rates. 

Don't be fooled, there is still lots of work to be done but far from being the disaster that my opponent will have you believe, despite inflation, our economy is looking bright. The Stock Market keeps reaching record highs. If you don't think that affects you, take a look at your retirement account statement. My opponent will tell you that we are sorely falling behind in the production of oil, but the fact is that the United States currently leads the globe in not only the production of fossil fuels but renewable energy sources as well. My opponent will tell you that our nation is an economic disaster, but the truth is, the United States economy under the Biden/Harris administration, not only staved off a devastating recession, but is leading the world in the broadest measure of economic growth, the GDP. If Donald Trump were president right now with the economy exactly as it is, rest assured he'd be telling you that it's incredible, nobody has ever seen as great an economy as this one.

But no, I'm not going to deceive you like that, we are not there yet in terms of incomes catching up to inflation, but we are getting there.

And yes, I'd say we are indeed better off today than we were four years ago when our economic future was still very much uncertain.

Or something of that nature.

Not only would that have directly answered the question, but it would have given people who may not know better, an important lesson that there are a lot of factors that control inflation, many of which have little or nothing to do with the person who sits at the resolute desk in Washington D.C. 

It would also point out that economic trends develop slowly, usually spanning multiple administrations. As an example, Donald Trump loves to point out that before the pandemic, he "created" one of the greatest economies the world has ever seen. The fact is, he inherited that economy from his predecessor Barack Obama who himself inherited the worst U.S. economy since the great Depression.

Is it possible to tout the achievements of the Biden/Harris administration while still addressing and not belittling the concerns of people who feel they got let behind?

I think it is, but precious time is running out, especially since Trump yesterday announced he won't do another debate, (who can blame him?), and Harris won't have as good an opportunity to address uninterrupted, tens of millions of Americans who get their information from "news" sources that won't give her the time of day. 

But try she must, to reach these folks. 

Because the alternative is simply unthinkable.

POST SCRIPT

I could go on and on and on and on and on about how Kamala Harris completely undressed Donald Trump the other night in Philadelphia, or in her words, "ate him for lunch." I won't though because it's so obvious and so much has already been said and written about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still downright giddy about her performance, but we have to put it behind us now and move on to the next challenge. 

All I can say is this: Well done.

Before

This post is being written about six hours before the most significant presidential debate in American history. The debate this evening happens to come on the heels of the last most significant presidential debate in history.

I guess that makes these past ten weeks between the debates the most significant two- and one-half months in American presidential debate history, or maybe not.

It is a little hard to believe there are still undecided voters out there who could be swayed by the outcome of tonight's debate. But given our arcane system of electing presidents, and the fact that the outcome of this election will be determined by a small number of people in a handful of states, this is the reality we're living in. 

I heard this morning that yet another poll has determined that up to one third of all undecided voters will likely make their decision based upon the tonight's outcome. Given that Donald Trump's performance is virtually a given, it means that everything will hang upon Kamala Harris's performance. Everyone and their mother, including mine, has advice for the Democratic nominee, and I hope she's listening, nodding her head, and keeps doing what she's been doing.

Yes, I'd like her to get a little more specific about her agenda, policy matters and all that. But let's face it, any president coming into office is inevitably faced with a barrage of issues that are unexpected and have little or nothing to do with the rhetoric that is spewed during the campaign. Contrary to the popular opinion of some of our countrymen and women, a president doesn't have a magic wand that he or she can wave to make an agenda reality, such as making inflation go away. The president not only has to work with Congress, and we've all seen how that's been working out lately, but also has to work with forces that are by and large beyond his or her control such as the economy. The scariest force of all that is beyond a president's control is the unforeseen, events like we've recently seen such as global pandemics and far-off wars. Setting a well-defined agenda at the outset is all well and good but in reality, what's more important to know is what are the tendencies, the values and perhaps above all, what is the intestinal fortitude of the candidate, which hopefully will give us an idea as to how he or she might handle the unforeseen.

In one of the candidates, we've seen all too well how he's handled adversity and the unknown. As I've mentioned before in this space, had the exPOTUS's response to the COVID pandemic, the one and only true challenge during his one term in office, been only barely competent, say a grade of C minus, had he made just a token effort to convince Americans that we were all on the same page in fighting that horrific tragedy together, Americans would have rallied behind him as they have in other times of crisis and he would have easily won reelection in 2020. 

However, he insisted on using the Pandemic to further divide the nation for his own purposes and as a result, he lost that election. It wasn't even close. Then, rather than conceding defeat as every losing presidential candidate up to him had done, well, we saw what happened on that day of infamy, January 6, 2001. 

In that regard, Kamala Harris is a blank slate, as has every person ever elected president for the first time.

Speaking in generalities as Harris has been doing, isn't necessarily a bad thing. In reality, that's all we ultimately have to go on, other than she can't be nearly as bad as her opponent.  

Anyway, I'll get into the act and offer my suggestion to the Vice President for the debate tonight if she's listening, which I'm sure she is...

When Trump brings up her communist tendencies, she should suggest he open up a book (perhaps "The Idiot's Guide to Communism") and read up a little on the subject before opening his mouth about something he knows absolutely nothing about.

And she should concentrate on her facial expressions during the split screen when her mic is turned off. Hers should be a look of dismissal rather than of abject horror which lost a lot of points for Joe Biden ten weeks ago.

We all know that Trump absolutely relishes being thought of as a badass, as a tough guy who takes no prisoners. But brushed off of as irrelevant, that drives him crazy, possibly to the point of spontaneous combustion. Not that I'd ever wish someone's demise as Clarence Darrow once suggested, "but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."

Who said this is going to be a debate? These things are not about ideas or issues, they're all about the performance, especially the one liners.

Just ask former Vice President Dan "Senator you're no Jack Kennedy" Quayle. 

Go get him Madame Vice President.