This feels like pretty high stakes to me. Those of you not watching I just cant fathom that. It’s like not watching the Super Bowl with your team playing. I’m saying that as someone who did not watch the first debate. This feels different. It’s Kamala’s first real big test and she needs to pass it.
Biden lost the nomination(in unprecedented fashion)and a good chunk of his reputation last debate. Trump pretty much owned the debates in 2016 as well and rode them to a win. The 2020 debates didn’t move the needle much but historically Trump debates have been pivotal moments in his political career. There is a decent chance this could be another one of those.
I firmly believe her biggest risk is trying to be too serious. She wins on vibes. Be the fun wine mom and laugh at the absurdity. Getting big mad like Hillary simply doesn’t work.
Disagree he lost to Hillary in 2016. Remember him bringing in all the women accusing Bill of raping them to one of the debates? That, Trump’s facial expressions while Hillary talked, Trump telling Hillary she was going to jail her and Ken Bone are all I remember out of those debates. Maybe Hillary “won” the debate but she didn’t get what she needed to out of them.
I think the dynamic is pretty different. Hilary was somewhat hamstrung by her being married to Bill, who by that point was well known for being a sleezy horn dog.
Plus how often she asked people to go to a website to fact check Donald’s lies. I mean lol at that. You’re supposed to laugh at him because you know how absurd the guy is on every level.
Hillary came across as an insincere hypocrite. Kamala is actually showing up to play with some integrity behind the things she’ll be confronting.
My vote is aspirational. I think a mixed strategy is best. Counterpunch. Wait for him to attack and hit him while he’s off balance. Rope-a-dope and float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
Smart play for Trump is to just babble extemporaneous nonsense about Haitians eating pets and raping children. Doesn’t matter what the question is, just flood the zone with fearmongering. It’s political dynamite and none of our institutions know what to do about openly racist trolling.
Hard to ride joyful vibes in a 1:1 setting in a silent room. Much easier to yell “We’re not going back!” to a crowd of 10,000 and simmer in the cheers for 20 seconds. She’s going to be serious, and that will sadly be framed as “angry black woman”.
I feel too anxious to watch. Must be old age or something.
Dog story:
Last week I saw a dog jump out of a slowly moving car’s window and get hung up by his leash with his back legs just reaching the ground. I thought the car would roll over his feet and I covered my face with my hands because I didn’t want to see it happen. Ugh. Fortunately the lady stopped before anything gruesome happened. She gathered up her dog and put it back through the window. Dog probably wasn’t seriously injured, thank goodness. The anticipation of something horrible happening while not being able to do anything is just sickening. It was like Biden v Trump all over again.
My only real impression of KH during the veep pence stuff was in the post debate interviews she couldn’t bring herself to BREAK NORMS by even mentioning the fly so not much hope for the wine stepmom. Maybe she’ll say “lock him up”.
