{"id":17569,"date":"2020-09-30T08:21:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=17569"},"modified":"2020-09-30T08:21:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:21:03","slug":"debate-post-mortem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2020\/09\/debate-post-mortem.html","title":{"rendered":"Debate Post-Mortem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

You know, it started out being funny, watching the debate turn into a shouting match.<\/p>\n

But it just wouldn\u2019t end.\u00a0 I know that the days of \u201cyellow light means you\u2019re almost out of time, red means you are\u201d are over, that It Was Decided that this sort of interchange was preferred over fixed time limits.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a disaster.\u00a0 Depending on your perspective, I suppose, either Biden let Trump walk all over him, or Trump is just an ***.\u00a0 A twitter account I follow relayed the outcome of a focus group of undecided voters:\u00a0 they are now leaning towards just not voting at all.\u00a0 Maybe this is what the Commission on Presidential Debates wants, and, hey, there was no fist-fight, but for crying out loud, this little experiment in \u201cmore discussion\u201d is not working.\u00a0 Fixed response times. Microphones cut when they\u2019re over.\u00a0 Bring back the red lights!<\/p>\n

So, writing from memory, mostly:<\/p>\n

One:\u00a0 \u201cGood people on both sides\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moderator Chris Wallace repeated the \u201cgood people on both sides\u201d hoax (that is, the claim that Trump called the Neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville \u201cgood people\u201d rather than, in fact, using that phrase at a different point to describe the two sides of the debate about removing monuments), then Biden seized the opportunity to claim that this moment was what led Biden to run for president.<\/p>\n

Some on my twitter feed are claiming that Wallace was a biased moderator for repeating this line.\u00a0 At the time, knowing that \u201c\u2018good people on both sides\u2019 is a hoax\u201d is something that folks on the right believe but have pretty strong feelings about, it seemed like a perfect set-up for Trump to say, \u201cactually, that\u2019s fake news, and I didn\u2019t say that about the Nazis.\u201d\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Idiot.<\/p>\n

Two:\u00a0 \u201cStand back and stand by\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ugh.\u00a0 Wallace asks Trump to call out \u201cwhite supremacists.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Trump says, \u201csure.\u201d\u00a0 Wallace wants something more specific, so Trump demands, \u201cgive me a name\u201d (that is, who exactly should I call out?), there\u2019s some cross talk during which Wallace says \u201cwhite supremacists something something Proud Boys,\u201d and Trump says, \u201cProud Boys, stand back and stand by.\u201d\u00a0 (This one I had to check, here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

What on earth did Trump mean?<\/p>\n

Lefties are saying that this is not a condemnation, but instead a call to arms.\u00a0 The Federalist says, \u201cof course not, you dummies.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 I find it unlikely that Trump really meant to say, \u201cwait for my signal to begin fighting,\u201d but at the least he\u2019s a fool for saying something ambiguous.<\/p>\n

The public option<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an extended bit of the debate about Biden\u2019s healthcare plan, he revealed a new claim to get around accusations that his \u201cpublic option\u201d is a back-door path to single-payer.\u00a0 He claimed that the \u201cpublic option\u201d would only be available for people on Medicaid.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t find this anywhere (and CSPAN only has excerpts<\/a>\u00a0transcripted, with very few of them of Biden), but this really made my head spin.\u00a0 A \u201cpublic option\u201d for Medicaid makes no sense because Medicaid is already a single-payer plan, except that states have generally chosen to contract out with insurance companies, because the \u201cpublic option\u201d wasn\u2019t working.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Green New Deal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biden categorically rejected the \u201cGreen New Deal.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s not his plan.\u00a0 His plan is a moderate plan to weatherize houses.<\/p>\n

Sorry, his campaign website specifically says<\/a>, \u201cBiden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court Packing<\/strong><\/p>\n

The was early in the debate, but, eh, I\u2019m not writing this in order.<\/p>\n

Each of Trump and Biden were asked about the Supreme Court nomination.\u00a0 Biden said, \u201cwe\u2019re in the middle of an election.\u201d\u00a0 Trump said, \u201cI am still president until my term ends\u201d and tried (though blundered his way through) to say that in 2016, it was a different situation because the president and the Senate were not of the same party.\u00a0 Biden then claimed that the stakes were too high because if Barrett were installed, Obamacare would be overturned \u2014 but didn\u2019t make any sort of meaningful case here.<\/p>\n

Then Wallace asked Biden to commit not to court-pack or end the filibuster, or at any rate to state his position.\u00a0 He refused.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know, it\u2019s a small thing, but it angers me that Biden categorically refuses to state a position on this topic.<\/p>\n

The pandemic and the lockdown<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look, there\u2019s nothing much new to observe here.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear that Trump would say that he handled it magnificently, and Biden would say that Trump was a failure.\u00a0 I was a bit surprised that Trump didn\u2019t work in jabs of Cuomo and DeBlasio, and that, with respect to masks, he didn\u2019t work in the CDC\u2019s and Fauci\u2019s mixed messaging and early rejection of masks.\u00a0 I was a bit startled to see Biden blaming the lockdown itself on Trump when up to now the message had been that Trump and the \u201cred states\u201d had not locked down sufficiently tight enough, and I have no idea if that\u2019s a claim that he\u2019s made repeatedly, or only in this debate.<\/p>\n

Vaccines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, Trump was asked how to square experts\u2019 statements that the vaccine is a mid-2021 event with his statements of \u201cvery soon,\u201d and he could have said,\u00a0\u201cof course it\u2019ll take a while to get everyone vaccinated, but we hope to be able to start vaccinating the most vulnerable much sooner,\u201d and he blew it.\u00a0 Wallace was even helping him, I thought, with his strong statement of a vaccine being \u201cgenerally available\u201d providing an opening to differentiate between \u201cgenerally available\u201d and \u201cgetting to those most in need.\u201d\u00a0 But he blew it.<\/p>\n

Biden, however, couldn\u2019t take the opportunity offered him, either, repeating, instead, his anti-vaxxer stance that \u201cI don\u2019t trust Trump, and you don\u2019t trust Trump,\u201d which, again, I think is very dangerous, because the American people, after being told repeatedly that vaccines can\u2019t be trusted because of politicians, aren\u2019t going to decide, come winter or spring, \u201cBiden is in office now, so I will get vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fair Elections<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be hanging chads all over again, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Biden claimed that mail-in ballots will be counted if they arrive late but there\u2019s a postmark.\u00a0 Various states are now declaring, contravening their existing legislation on the matter, that ballots will be counted that arrive a week or two after the election even if there is no postmark<\/em>.\u00a0 Then Biden said<\/a>, when asked if he\u2019s concerned that the Supreme Court would be making decisions about the election, \u201cI\u2019m concerned any Supreme Court would, because when you get a ballot and fill it out, you are supposed to have an affidavit, if you didn\u2019t know, someone said this to me, you should be able to \u2014 if in fact you can verify before the ballot is thrown out, that is sufficient to count the ballot because somebody made a mistake and not dotting the correct I, who they voted for, testify, say who they voted for, say it\u2019s you, that is totally legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

I really don\u2019t know what he meant here, but given the reports about people filling out their absentee\/mail-in ballots incorrectly, it sounds like they are gearing up to have the maximal number of those ballots counted even if the law in a given state specifies otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The empty wine bottle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ugh.\u00a0 Today\u2019s meal was planned to be a beef burgundy recipe in the instant pot.\u00a0 So the immediate practical outcome of the debate is that I let my husband drink the rest of the wine without saving 1\/2 cup for the recipe, and now I have to go to the store or change the recipe.<\/p>\n

So happy Wednesday \u2013 and time to get started with the rest of the day\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0V0050236 A fist-fight between Lord Brougham and Lord Melbourne as Pea
\nCredit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
\nimages@wellcome.ac.uk
\nhttp:\/\/wellcomeimages.org
\nA fist-fight between Lord Brougham and Lord Melbourne as Peachum and Lockit. Coloured lithograph by H.B. (John Doyle), 1837.
\n1837 By: John DoylePublished: 22 October 1836
\nCopyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/<\/p>\n

Yes, this is my all-purpose image to skip out on finding a debate-specific public domain picture.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know, it started out being funny, watching the debate turn into a shouting match. But it just wouldn\u2019t end.\u00a0 I know that the days of \u201cyellow light means you\u2019re almost out of time, red means you are\u201d are over, that It Was Decided that this sort of interchange was preferred over fixed time limits.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[494,1459],"class_list":["post-17569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-donald-trump","tag-joe-biden"],"yoast_head":"\nDebate Post-Mortem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You know, it started out being funny, watching the debate turn into a shouting match. 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