Trump didn’t want, much less imagine, a debate with Harris. Not so subconsciously he still thinks he’s facing Joe Biden
What will happen: Harris will put in a fine performance, coolly parrying his attacks and laying out a coherent vision for her presidential term. The press will latch onto one thing—perhaps some ambiguity around tax policy or her correcting herself after starting to say the wrong word —and blow it up into existential doubts about the very basis of her campaign. Meanwhile, Trump will ramble semicoherently, spouting disjointed assertions about protecting the border or the children or whatever, segueing into stories about golfing with famous people or immigrants abducting and transing American children, calls for mass executions of bad guys and word salad with no discernible meaning. The media will helpfully gloss over that, pointing out that he “forcefully advocated American interests” and is “in tune with public concerns about security/the economy”. They’ll award it to him, judging that he had regained the initiative and Harris is now on the run, and the 99.9% of the public who didn’t watch the debate themselves will believe that.
I really don’t understand why Harris doesn’t just do Town Hall after Town Hall everywhere. Even Sanders did a Fox News town hall (though in this case I doubt fox would offer).
Town Hall events seem perfect to get Trump out of the way, and have Americans get to know you. Do like 3 in PA.
Because people generally don’t care about policy. And those of us who do can just listen to reputable reporters.
As far as the public is concerned, trump scared Biden off in that last debate. Kamala needs this to show she is “stronger” as it were.
I’m cool with a debate to showcase the contrast and prove Harris can hold her own. But the nature of these faux debates always seem to give the advantage to the bully. So with that said, it’s not necessarily about policy but vibes. Obama did tons of town halls for this reason. Many voters including in the most recent NYT Siena poll just don’t know enough about her yet. A town hall gives that chance that is less scripted than a rally and more personable than a debate.
They’ve been waiting for this debate to do a huge PR blitz. Trump is exhausting his campaign by doing non-stop bullshit events, and she needs to really get it out there that he is deranged, and possibly embarrass him on national TV, then just hammer that home until election day.
Once this one is out of the way, expect them to have a bunch of new events out there (especially Walz).
This is why I sit through these things, despite them being of relatively little benefit to me, as I follow politics regularly, so I’m not surprised who these people are. I trust the press in general, but they summarize these things so poorly.
The first Biden debate, he seemed sick from the start, and I think he did ok for being an ill elderly guy, and Trump just spewed BS. I’d give more credit to the guy that toughed it out while sick to do his job than some hyper guy rambling on like a crazy person. The makeup speech where he was supposed to bring the energy stank though, and that’s when I began to lose hope in him winning, even though I think he’s exceeded my expectations I had for him.
I don’t like the pull to the right I feel Kamala’s taking, but she’s still miles ahead of her competition, but I want to hear her stances through her own words, not a crappy summary from the news.
There’s no chance in hell anything in this debate will change my choice, but I think this election is a pivotal place in our history as a country, and I don’t want to ignore it for a Reddit quality summary tomorrow if I can watch it live.
