The Biden and Trump debate is fast approaching. I'll probably watch it, though in my opinion it's nothing more than a beauty contest. The 'winner' will be determined by style points...least amount of mispronounced words, snappiest retorts, most gotchas, least number of pauses and stumbles - everything cosmetic but nothing of substance - everything but detailed information on their plans to deal with what are considered to be the important issues of our time. But that's what we have come to allow and expect. We're more interested in the endless reality shows, celebrity figures, the latest smart phone and apps than political issues. But that's always been the case. When I was a kid elections boiled down to Democrats were "for the working man" and Republicans were "for the rich." That's all there was to it. You didn't need or care to know a candidates position on issues. I think that's still true today. The only effect the debates will have is that those who are undecided will vote for whoever their favorite news source says won the debates. As for those who are party affiliated, no matter how their candidate did in the debates Republicans will vote Trump and Democrats will vote Biden.
I think it's likely that Trump will crush Biden in the upcoming debate. Biden to me comes across as shallow and plastic, his words sounding mechanical in origin rather than coming from a confident person with conviction. Trump has a strong presence, a force of personality that can and has overcome mistakes and the nonsense he regularly spouts. If he can force himself to respond to the moderator's questions with concise, coherent answers and avoid going off on his typical non sequitur comments I can see him having Biden off balance and on the defensive all night.
A Harris/Pence debate would be the exact opposite. I have the impression that Harris is a firebrand who can get mean and overly dramatic, characteristics which in my view could hinder her effectiveness in office but would destroy Pence in a debate. Pence is an enigma to me. I don't remember any other political figure so lacking in personal attributes. A department store mannequin has more charisma, color, presence and personality than Pence. Trump seems not to appreciate people who might upstage him, which may be the reason why he selected Pence.
I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent, reasonably informed independent conservative, and as such I shudder to think of another four years of Trump and even more so of Pence as a possible future president, nor am I thrilled with Biden or Harris, but whatever happens we'll survive, thanks to the checks and balances in the Constitution that help us to persevere. In the mean time I sincerely hope that somewhere an intelligent, educated, tactful, mature and visionary conservative will arise to take the 2024 election by a landslide.
No comments:
Post a Comment