We're Winning Too Much Sir

 I had fun following the debate this evening and posting along on Gab. Reminded me of those halcyon days of 2016 where I would post along on Twitter and the boards with the bros. This second debate was far better than the first 2020 debate, where Trump didn't quite know how to approach Biden so he hit the old politician with everything he had, billowing and blustering. Great fun, but far less memorable. No catchphrase meme moments if you will. This time around? Hoo boy. Needless to say, Joe lost. He lost bigly.

Number 1 -- he went on public record saying he wanted to end the oil industry. Trump looked elated. Even the debate moderator paused for a moment. "Why would you do that?" She asked in disbelief. Joe says oil is poisonous or some such nonsense. 

Number 2 -- he said he would re-enter the Paris Accord without changing it. But he would hold China accountable he says! Yes, but Trump had just said China wouldn't have to do anything until 2030. I don't think Americans want to pay for filthy China for ten years while they pocket even more of our money.

Number 3 -- zero prison time for "pure" drug offenses. Very odd one to hold to for me, why would he do this? He literally said he wouldn't arrest someone for cocaine possession. Sure, rehab sounds all well and good until people realize the sheer amount of drugs flowing in from very powerful people and very big foreign gangs. Heads up foreign gangs, none of you will be arrested any longer. It's called boosting the economy in Joe's world, I guess.

Number 4 -- 11 million illegal immigrants would be made citizens within the first year. 11 million. That's a decent size city's worth. I assume this works in tangent with point #3, as the foreign drug dealers would have to be American citizens in order to not be arrested for selling dope to your boy Johnny. But don't worry, Johnny will be taken and put into rehab. On the taxpayer's dime of course.

Any one of these points alone would kill an average politician before they hit the primaries. But this is clown world. These points are real platforms. We don't even need to discuss Biden's constant confusion. There was no mere stuttering. I have friends who stutter. They don't say "B-52... B-1 Bombers..." or "Poor Boys" on a stutter. That's just confusion. The old man noticeably shut down -- more than once! -- during the debate as he attempted to answer questions. A system reboot I suppose.

I'll be curious to see how the MSM spins it. And of course, we still have the Laptop from Hell lurking in the background...

First Debate Performance - Everyone's a Winner

I've yet to check the morning news coverage to see who they're saying has won the debate. Not that anyone really needs to check the news to know that they are lauding Hillary for last night's performance. It is true she managed not to collapse last night, so I suppose points must be given to her for that admirable task. I suspect that the debate did little to sway people who were already decided though. If one was already planning to vote for Trump, then Trump managed to do well. If one was going to vote for Hillary, then they will probably still vote for Hillary. Some undecided or third party voters may have been swayed to a side and if any of them were swayed I suspect they were most likely swayed to Trump.

Though Trump didn't come out swinging with any knockouts - he was noticeably silent on Hillary's multiple scandals - he hit on many of his points that were familiar to his followers. Tax reforms, trade deal reworkings, explanations of how his business acumen would help the country's economy, etc. He was visibly angry at times and frustrated, most of which was directed at Hillary. Trump was in visible disbelief that she had been running the country for so long but had done nothing good for the American people, a disbelief that many of his followers certainly share. I'm sure the media will paint his anger as ravings from a madman without ever touching on the fact that's what we want to see after years of dealing with inept smiling politicians.

Speaking of smiling politicians, who told Hillary she needed to smile more? She can't smile worth a damn without coming off as either terrifying or condescending. I took note last night that she was trying to ape Trump's body language somewhat and tried to come across as smooth and confident. It doesn't work for her in the slightest. Her half-lidded glassy-eyed stare didn't help matters, though I suspect that was more from the effects of her drug cocktail than any conscious effort on her part. I'm not sure if she can't look human due to plastic surgery or if she simply doesn't know how to appear natural. Putting her face side-by-side against Trump's only served to highlight how bizarrely robotic and rehearsed she sounds and appears. Is this what "presidential" is supposed to look like? Screw that, give me Trump's fiery passionate pleas and organic talking any day.

I am curious here if Hillary's portion of the debate was actually rehearsed. There were several moments where she tried to use jokes (zingers I think the media is calling them) to her advantage but they came off as stilted or misused. One noticeable moment for me was when Trump was talking about how he had been visiting inner cities to talk to people and discuss ways to help with their problems and he accused Hillary of staying home. Hillary's response? "I think Donald is accusing me of preparing for the debates. Why yes, I have prepared for the debates, just like I'm prepared for the presidency!" Cue some applause from the supposedly silent audience. What a bizarre moment. If this is her trying to tap into memetics I don't think we have anything to fear.

One thing people will be picking apart for weeks is the extremely obvious contrast between the two candidates. It goes beyond speaking style or organic feelings. All of Hillary's points were filled to the brim with the usual liberal platitudes. Amusingly, Trump actually pointed this out. "It's all sound bites; it sounds good now but they don't mean anything". Beyond the usual liberal niceties about how we all need to come together and just be more accepting, there was a definite strain of globalism that should alarm anyone. Her insistence that NAFTA was a great thing for our country, her refusal to dismiss the TPP, her pleas to other countries that the US would always be there for them and never ever think of renegading on our deals, her praise of immigrants... all of it very globally focused. Trump shot back with his well-known America First policies, though he was more impassioned than usual. He outright stated that the US couldn't and shouldn't be the policeman of the world for free, that we need to get the rich to bring their money back into this country instead of spreading it about internationally and of course that we need to be tougher about protecting our own interests and people.

Many people are rightly pointing out that Trump was on the defensive all night, but they're also pointing out that it hurt him. I'm not so sure about that. Perhaps it hurt him in some things. He did spend far too much time talking about his tax returns that I've yet to find any voter sincerely concerned about. But to offset that, he fired back that he would release his tax returns when Hillary releases the emails she deleted from her server. Hillary and Lester Holt managed to keep him prickly throughout the debate, which will do well to serve her agenda of promoting Trump's "dark and dangerous" propaganda. But having Trump on the defensive produced some great results for anyone who supports him. When was the last time anyone at a presidential debate has pointed out that our economy is in a bubble and the politically motivated Fed is waiting until just the right moment to pop it? How about his punch to the Mainstream Media, a label he was all too happy to use to point out how friendly they were with Hillary? His own zingers will likely go unnoticed by the MSM, aside from the cottage industry of so called fact checkers. Statements like, "Hillary's been fighting ISIS her entire adult life" or "I got Obama to produce his birth certificate in 2011, something Hillary's people had been trying to do for years. She wants to produce jobs but she couldn't even produce a birth certificate". Trump's willingness to point out such obvious truths is what has set him aside from the usual crop of politicians and there's no reason to believe that it's stopped working for him.

I realized an important thing as the debate wound down with Hillary hurling accusations of sexism toward Trump. She had been relatively smooth, if zombie-like, all night. This was her at her best, something she knows. Trump was very clearly not at his best and seemed to be running at around 70-80% of his normal zeal. This isn't good for Hillary. Trump's pacing himself, feeling out how these debates are rigged against him and working out his strategies on the fly. I have no doubt that in the next debate he will escalate his energy and in the final debate he will come out swinging. Hillary needs to remain at the top of her game and even surpass it to keep up with Trump, something she will not be able to do.

There is another bit of persuasion at play that I'm wondering if anyone else noticed. Who would you rather have as president, the person with the adult-sized podium or the one behind the child-sized podium?

Getting Comfy for the Pre-Debate Landslide

In most cases I tend to write off when the Mainstream Media try to hype events. Any sort of "most watched event" or "must see showdown" I ignore as I have no desire to give them my viewership or money for something that inevitably falls short of their sensationalist headlining. That said, I am making an exception for the first presidential debate tonight. If only because for once I actually am feeling rather hyped up for an event. Here it is finally, Trump and Hillary in the same room actually speaking to each other. I can't believe it took so long for Hillary to steel herself.

Still, I am legitimately trying not to hype myself up too much. This is Trump's game to lose and I fully expect some surprises to come out of Hillary's corner. At the same time, I do expect the Nimble Navigator to deflect most of them and hone in on actual issues. Hillary's tendency for long-winded roundabout answers will play off rather terribly against Trump's simple snappy responses. Even if it is Trump's game to lose, I expect him to come out of the debate looking even better than before despite the inevitable whining and "fact-checking" the MSM will be doing for the rest of the week. Like others have pointed out by now, the question no longer seems to be if Trump will win; now we are asking by how much he will win.

Lester Holt will undoubtedly try to pry his way into the debate as a participant, especially with the Clinton campaign and a decent percentage of the voters asking him to fact-check Trump's lies. A rather bizarre thing for a moderator to do but not all that worrisome. If Holt is extra hard on one candidate and not the other, this will only help Trump as this will confirm our preconceived persuasions of media bias. Liberals may whine about party lines and point out that Lester Holt is registered as a Republican voter, but the man's a known softball reporter. All anyone needs to do is take a look at Lester Holt's "unbiased" reporting history to see who he favors.

Beyond Lester Holt's obvious biases, other persuasion tactics will certainly be at work tonight. Take a look at the great seal imagery used in this debate prep, the American Bald Eagle clutching his arrows and olive branch. Anyone who knows US imagery can immediately see that the arrows and olive branch have been flipped. Conspiracy theorists can have fun trying to figure out if this means we're signalling whether or not the US is preparing for war, but persuasion theorists should take note here too. Who do the arrows of war point to on the stage? Who does the olive branch hang over to signify the peaceful one? Very subtle persuasion at play here and certainly purposeful; the objects held in the talons are never switched accidentally. We can fully expect lots of the usual "dark and dangerous" talk that helped Hillary earlier this year. This weekend's higher than usual violence will almost certainly be used by both sides and I also expect Hillary will try to spin the madness unfolding in Syria to her favor as well.

All of that being said, I cannot wait for the proverbial fur to fly tonight. I'm going to be comfy tonight gents; who else is ready for the beatdown?