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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
‘It is dangerous when low nature comes
Between the pass and the fall the points are upset
A strong objection. William Shakespeare, HamletAct 5, Scene 2
Time: “The debate will begin at 9 pm EDT on Tuesday and is expected to last 90 minutes.”
Location: “The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will enter the White House racetrack on Tuesday as it hosts the first and scheduled presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.” And how ridiculous that there is only one debate. There is no doubt that the loser will want a rematch, but the winner will not agree to give it.[1]
The rules: “ABC’s rules, shared for the first time with the campaigns last month, largely reflect the way CNN’s presidential debate in June between Trump and President Joe Biden, where the candidates’ microphones were silenced while their opponents spoke. It was a law that the Biden campaign had emphasized but something that the Harris campaign wanted to change after becoming president. The network’s rules also state that there will be no audience, candidates will not be allowed to take notes, no staff can visit during the double commercial break and candidates cannot ask each other questions.” Also: “ABC said only moderators will be allowed to ask questions. Each person will be given two minutes to answer each question with two minutes for rebuttals, and additional minutes for follow-ups, clarifications or answers.” It’s funny how the mike rule is now in Trump’s favor, even though the Biden camp insists on it.
It is interesting that both candidates have the same weakness: Kamala, for word salad (honestly, “Weakness about isolation” is not English), and Trump, for what I call “jazzy riffing” (and how some experts, perhaps with a tendency, call it. ” tangentiality”). However, Trump’s argument has staying power; he can keep it up for ninety minutes, easily. As for Kamala’s staying power, I’m not so sure.
Before the Biden vs Trump debate, I wrote:
What I’ll be watching — other than that, I admit, I’m waiting for Biden to slip a cog or “Oh, humanity!” a second from Trump, with both opponents duking it out, blow-by-blow, ZOMG the spectacle!! – it will be the way voters appeal, or are managed or encouraged to appeal, to a small number of persuasive voters in emerging states (and their appeals, perhaps to reverse the future course of the race). For some reason, I kept watching Ball of money latest clips; This is very good: “People who run football clubs, think about buying players. Your goal should not be to buy players, your goal should be to buy winners. And to buy wins, you need to buy runs. ” Those small numbers of persuasive voters are the ones who run.
That’s right, Biden actually he did jump cog, especially, so the argument seemed pointless after that, and I never saw what I said I was going to watch. Maybe this time!
However, if I had to think about what one would call a pivotal moment – Trump having won two, one with Clinton, and one with Biden, knocking the latter out of the race – I see two possibilities.
First, Kamala. If Kamala comes out with a brilliantly crafted and confidently delivered statement to the prosecutor, using the word “felon” a lot, Trump is going to need to take it down, hard (recent revelation that Bragg’s PR thinks Bragg’s case was a cliffhanger. help here. He’s going to need some help from the president to do this early, however.
Second, Trump. As we know, Trump has a knack for spotting weaknesses in others. He has not revealed this to Kamala. My pet theory about that case: Trump spokesman Alvarez recently said that “the American people know ‘who Trump is,’ but what we don’t is Kamala Harris,” but I’ll go further: A case can be made that. Kamala he doesn’t know who he is. It’s nice to be Indian, Black, and mixed race. What is not good is to change, like a chameleon, from the first, to the second, to the third, depending on the campaign. There is also Kamala’s change in policy from 2019 to today. Surely Medicare for All and fracking are big enough issues to take on for more than three years? And then there’s the issue of plagiarism: If Kamala really knows what she stands for, why on earth is she writing the Biden platform? Then there’s the oh-so-authentic collard greens and spices. What about that? I don’t know how to reduce that to a debate zinger, but if I had to pick a weakness for Kamala, it would be that.
Oh, and flexibility is a key feature of this selection, despite all efforts to keep things stable. It follows that the debate will be as intense as the last one.
PS I wonder if Melania releasing a clip in an assassination attempt on Trump will be a topic of discussion. That should be interesting!
NOTES
[1] More on the National Constitution Center from Wikipedia:The National Constitution Center is a non-profit institution dedicated to the study of the United States Constitution. Located on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center is an interactive museum that serves as a national town hall, hosting government leaders, journalists, academics, and celebrities participating in public debates, including events related to the Constitution and presidential debates.
An important event took place on September 17, 2000, the 213rd year the Constitution was signed.
Frankly, I find the whole idea a little unappealing. If the Constitution were truly a living book, would there be a museum dedicated to it? My feeling of uneasiness is reinforced by another detail:
Prior to its closing in December 2019, the Newseum, a journalism-themed museum in Washington DC, had a four-story stone panel inscribed with the First Amendment text as part of its exterior design. The Freedom Forum, the non-profit organization that created the museum, announced in March 2021 that the panel would be dismantled and donated to the National Constitutional Center for display on the second floor.
So the First Amendment was the first to go….
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