Granted, I have a well-documented penchant for cynicism. Therefore, you’d be forgiven for dismissing my title as me just being my cynical self. But I need only cite two unassailable facts to prove the truth it asserts:
- The October surprise in 2012 was that Mitt Romney defeated Barack Obama in at least two of their three presidential debates. Yet no one was surprised when Obama went on to win the election.
- There was no surprise in 2016 when Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in all three of their presidential debates. Yet everyone was surprised when Trump went on to win the election.
More to the point, here is the prescient way I bemoaned the media hyping these debates like a heavyweight boxing match in “The Presidential Debates: Just Making Waves,” October 3, 2012:
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The United States is like the Titanic heading straight for a fateful iceberg. What is remarkable about this impending doom, however, is that, even though everybody from the captain (the president) to the ship steward (the most junior member of Congress) sees it coming, nobody seems the least bit concerned.
To the contrary, the most influential people on this ship all seem possessed of a national death wish. Indeed, no less a person than Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell manifested this suicidal mindset just months after President Obama was inaugurated. That’s when he boasted ominously – not about helping to steer the ship of state away from that proverbial iceberg, but about making waves to ensure that Captain Obama has no ability to alter this disastrous course.
The media should be chided for shamelessly and irresponsibly promoting the first of these debates (beginning just hours from now) as a do-or-die, Thrilla-in-Manila showdown. After all, every single reporter or pundit worth his salt knows that no presidential debate in US history has ever been a decisive factor in the outcome of any presidential election.
Frankly nothing betrays the suicidal mindset in this case quite like the media previewing these debates more by salivating over potential gaffes and zingers. This, while blithely ignoring any prospect of Romney and Obama debating and prescribing remedies for everything from economic malaise to illegal immigration.
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To be fair, Trump made clear his intent to not even debate the issues. Therefore, the media can be forgiven for advertising this debate like a boxing match. Never mind that Trump made it more like a street mugging.
President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. appeared onstage together for the first time on Tuesday. It was not exactly a debate.
Shouting, interruptions and often incoherent cross talk filled the air as Mr. Trump purposefully and repeatedly heckled and blurted over his rival and the moderator alike in a 90-minute melee that showcased the president’s sense of urgency to upend a race in which polls show him trailing.
(The New York Times, September 30, 2020)
But nobody should have been surprised. Here is how I telegraphed what played out when a friend from South Africa (such was the worldwide interest) asked me to preview this spectacle:
Of course, Biden has too much intelligence and self-respect to perform as advertised. Instead, he seized every opportunity to show that only he has the temperament and agenda to restore America, if not the world, from Trump’s dystopia and Covid’s pandemic.
This is why Trump ended up fighting against himself. Which had him spewing outrageous lies, Internet conspiracies, personal attacks, and even shout-outs to Proud-Boy fascists – all in a desperate attempt to derail any serious debate on why, among other things, he
- bungled the fight against Covid-19;
- failed to pay federal income taxes;
- stoked racial tensions while empowering white supremacists;
- called Americans who serve in the military suckers and losers; and
- sided with Russia as if he ran for president as Putin’s Manchurian candidate.
But there’s no denying that rubberneckers got exactly what they tuned in to watch, namely a political train wreck playing out like a presidential debate – if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphors.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. And, for what it’s worth, Biden emulated Hillary by easily winning this debate. This, despite Trump living up to the media hype with his juvenile, boorish attempts to get under Biden’s skin (which he succeeded in doing a few times).
But I’d be remiss not to hail the exceptional role Speaker Nancy Pelosi played. Because, while everyone else was acting like Don King in hyping this debate, Pelosi was acting like Cassandra in warning of the doom it would surely display. Boy, was she right.
That said, I should note for the record that, like Hillary four years ago, Biden won this debate hands down; that is, he literally refused to counterpunch — even as Trump pummeled him with a Tourrets-like barrage of cheap shots.
Also, given the prevailing view of Trump as Putin’s useful idiot, I’d be remiss not to second CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer’s lament. For he immediately bemoaned that America’s enemies were the real winners of this presidential debate. No doubt they were laughing their asses off at the “hot mess” on display and the worsening civil unrest it portends.
But despairing friends and gloating foes alike should beware that this debate will have about as much impact on America as a flea sh!tting on the hide of an elephant. What’s more, nobody should doubt that it will take a President Biden no more than four months to clean up the mess Trump has created, at home and abroad, over the past four years.
This is why, despite the dystopian anomie that has occasioned the Trump presidency, I remain convinced that there’s no better place in the world to live than the good old USA.
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just making waves…