My Take on the So-called Debate

So the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is now history. Of course there are different versions of that history depending on whether you read the New York Times or the New York Post. Here’s my take on the debate and how Ms. Harris did on the three topics I was most interested in.

On her first challenge she performed very well, no word salads or inappropriate laughing. In fact, she spoke well and appeared more presidential than former President Trump. On the third challenge that I laid out, her interaction with the former president was also very well done. She was able to get under his very thin skin by needling him about Hannibal Lecter and people leaving his rallies sending him off on tangents about immigrants eating peoples’ pets in Ohio. I don’t know how Ms. Harris would do against Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping, but she handled Mr. Trump pretty easily (makes me wonder how Putin and Xi handled Mr. Trump).

She clearly won the contest, whatever it was.

But the second challenge I laid out for her was unmet. She has a plan for the housing shortage, a plan for bringing down the price of groceries. But she doesn’t explain what these plans are. Sixteen Nobel laureates may like her plans but she needs to explain those plans in terms ordinary Americans can understand. Mr. Trump claimed the current administration caused the highest inflation in the history of our country (clearly not true as proven by the 14% mortgage on my first house back in 1981). But he failed to attack her proposal of price controls to counter the price gouging of greedy corporations.

Here’s what I don’t get. She speaks proudly about her upbringing by her immigrant mother, how they had to work so hard and save so much in order to achieve the American Dream. She doesn’t mention any government help or assistance needed to achieve that dream. Just a good education and hard work by a person of color without any privilege. So why does she now think that Americans cannot achieve the American Dream without government assistance? Nobody is going to feel proud of a dream paid for with taxpayers’ money. What moral lessons does a child learn while being raised on handouts of other peoples’ money? If her values are the middle class values that she is so proud of, why does she now think that only government can help. Something has changed.

So, Kamala Harris remains a cipher. A second debate now is considered unlikely and even if there was a second debate it would be unlikely to shed any more light than the first. Hopefully, some enterprising journalist will be able to get her to answer some tough questions, but I doubt it.

So we will go into the voting booth just as perplexed as ever. Let’s pray for divided government.