Democrats

Joe Biden was better rehearsed in his talking points for the second debate, but that's all he had: talking points, delivered with a singular absence of charisma.  Primary voters who imagined him on a debate stage with Tr*mp much have felt more than a little queasy, even as they tried to figure out which of the other establishment white males were which.

 

Kamala Harris is trying to bridge the divide between the progressives and the moderates, but was visibly stressed during the second round of debates; and Pete Buttegeig's base of supporters seems to have topped out.  Unless there's an unexpected surge by Amy Klobuchar or Tulsi Gabbard, Biden is likely to remain the anointed choice of "moderates" in the party's leadership — potentially with devastating results.

Here's my nightmare scenario: Democrats go to their Milwaukee convention next July with no clear leader.  Hoping to maintain the Democratic advantage among women, Bernie Sanders releases his delegates to Elizabeth Warren, and it comes down to a choice between Warren and Biden.  Elected delegates are split, and establishment super-delegates throw the nomination to Biden.  On Election Day, large numbers of young progressives stay home in disgust: Tr*mp redux.

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One last thought: in the September debate, I genuinely will miss Marianne Williamson  — the only candidate to make a consistently moral argument against Tr*mpism.  Hopefully, some others will be more inclined to call out evil when they see it.

The Second "Debate"

The presidential debate in St. Louis would have been just as informative and moderately more amusing had the candidates been dressed in clown suits and armed with seltzer bottles, although that format might have done even more damage to hard-working birthday clowns already suffering from the latest "creepy clown" panic.  If Tr*mp hoped to get past his latest predatory image, he didn't do himself much good by stalking around the stage striking intimidating poses.  Clinton looked like she would have preferred to be anywhere else — and who could blame her?

The "town hall" format was meaningless, because those few "undecided" citizens who got to ask questions were largely ignored.  Tr*mp almost immediately accused moderators Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper of being "against" him, even though they did a competent job of concealing their disgust.

One interesting Clinton tactic was an effort to tie Tr*mp to Vladimir Putin.  Granted, Putin might prefer to deal with an internally weakened USofA under a President Tr*mp, but it is hard to accept that Tr*mp has invited or encouraged Putin's interference in the American election: sociopaths do not automatically stick together.  In truth, I see more of the paranoid stylings of Erdogan or Duterte in Tr*mp than the icy manipulations of the Russian leader.

Most Americans will breathe a sigh of relief when this election is over, but the disruptive and destructive impact of the election will not end soon.

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We lost one of the best with the death of Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson. His efforts to review and correct the injustices of the past were unprecedented, and should serve as a model for law enforcement officials everywhere.

Round Two

Earlier — 6 PM

I find it hard to believe that Gallup found 80 undecided voters in the vicinity of Hempstead, Long Island, who are not brain damaged.  Okay, brain damaged Long Islanders are not especially rare — as anybody who ever has driven the Long Island Expressway can testify — but then we would have to ask, "Who fed them the questions?"

Perhaps some people a bit more like me kept their political views undercover — both left and right.  How good was Gallup?  Who the hell knows?

Needless to say, Gallup should have picked me.  I'm not voting for either one of them, because both of them make me sick, and because New York is not a swing state, so who cares?  I have some good questions, which neither of them would especially like to answer — and those are the questions we really need.

Well, maybe not.  Maybe it's too late.  Seeya later.

Later — 11 PM

Why did they bother to have those strange looking people from Long Island sitting around, reading questions from cards?  Gallup may have done a reasonably good job, but I still wonder who wrote the questions.  The whole "town meeting" conceit is pretty ridiculous.

Anyway, nobody seems to have slipped Obama a mickey tonight, so he was his usual stiff self — and Romney, by comparison, looked like his usual stiff self instead of (by comparison) Ronald Reagan.  Anybody looking for charisma has a tough choice this year.

I guess the media will call it a draw, but I suspect Obama will get a bit of a lift — especially since, cleverly, he got the "47%" into his closing comment, so there was no opportunity for Romney to answer.

Really, though, I'm offended by all of it.  Oh, and, by the way, my questions were not asked,