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You can analyze the presidential debate as much as you like, but the data isn’t relevant when you look at how both candidates were perceived by the viewers. And it wasn’t good for those of us rooting for Trump.
Trump came off as a curmudgeon (is his age finally catching up to him?), bitter and whiny; unable to stay on track to make the arguments that would have effectively dismantled Harris. He was stuck in past disappointments (as she pointed out), and he wasn’t able to demonstrate dignity and presence. And his bragging (an old habit that raised its ugly head) was annoying and ineffective. Viktor Orban?
Harris, in contrast, hit him where it hurts. She called him a liar several times (most times illegitimately), and pointed out every ugly trait that he was demonstrating. She did look like a disapproving mother, but can you blame her? And she managed to work in some of her supposed attributes while she was busy tearing him down.
Trump's accomplishments were irrelevant in this debate. Harris’s flip-flopping actions were never addressed. Both candidates dodged questions—the moderators tried to get direct answers and usually failed miserably.
Should they try another go-around? If I were Trump, I wouldn’t; if I were Harris, why not?
Discussion (180)
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She wins because she's more photogenic than Trump. It's a shallow reason but we're a shallow country who votes for people for shallow reasons. She looks young and vibrant and Trump looks a little old and haggard. I gotta say Trumps hair actually looked pretty decent last night. Looked like he got it trimmed up before the debate.
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Yes, he looked bad, repeated too much and came across as mean and unserious...and I will vote for him anyway because I think Harris will be a disaster. But she will win, I think. I look for a 5-7% bounce in the polls so unless something happens between now and Nov it's over.
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Excellent succinct analysis Susan. Not much more to add. President Trump lost the debate pure and simple and most likely the election along with it; it will be tough for him to get this out of the minds of voters. He should have been better prepared and have known what he was walking into but he was not. At the end of the day he lost the debate…it’s on him. Whats done is done…this is whom the majority of Republicans wanted as the nominee so we have to ride the horse all the way to then end…warts and all. It does no good to lament what could have been….it s what we have now.
All that said…the moderators last night were next level biased. Yes any Republican will face a “hostile” moderator from ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, NYT, Wapo etc but last night was next level. I will respectfully argue that it will behoove the main stream conservative media…National Review, Commentary, Washington Free Beacon et al (Federalist and Blaze and Townhall etc will call this out but they have such a small audience overall) to really call out how bad the moderators were. They should of course critique President Trump’s performance but they cannot let this go unchecked. You can argue that President Trump lost the debate by his own performance and still call out how biased these moderators were and that we really need to have a discussion about the media in this country. I hope the mainstream conservative outlets will do that in the next few days. Not to let President Trump off the hook for his performance but also don’t let the moderators off the hook.
The real looser last night was the American people as the betrayal of the media was wide open for all to see last night.
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Trump should debate again. He should go over his performance with his debate team and correct any deficiencies. Of course, Harris is going to decline - one and done . . .
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It's our fault for not unifying behind Trump and chanting his praises in unison every morning. How else was he supposed to know that he doesn't need to come up with a plan or change anything?
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