Post-debate second thoughts

I filed yesterday’s column about an hour after the debate ended. I did not look at any analysis because I want to give you my opinion, unaffected by what others say. I also like to post fast because people will read one, two or three pieces, but not 10. So getting there first is important, even at the sacrifice of depth.

Had I listened to the talking heads, the column would have had to be different. Such as:

Democratic leaders are in a panic over President Joe Biden’s poor performance and this will ignite chatter about how they must dump him as their candidate. After all, there has been no convention naming him as the candidate.

On the other hand, he has been selected by millions of Democratic voters, and if they throw him overboard, how can they claim that Donald J. Trump is the threat to democracy when Democrats are discarding votes?

That doesn’t mean they won’t try to get him to step down voluntarily.

Stray thoughts:

• Aside from “democracy is threatened,” which I never took as a serious talking point, abortion is the Democrats’ singular best issue. Biden was unable to harness it effectively.
• In contrast, Trump’s favorite talking was was illegal immigration, which he shoe-horned into many of his answers, whether or not it fit the question.
• Given how important voters rank crime and guns, they were barely mentioned.
• CNN commentator (and former Marxist) Van Jones had it about right when he said Biden was right on the issues but offered an ineffective performance, while Trump lied, but did so effectively.
• This was the result of a week’s preparation by Biden?
• At the post-debate party, Biden suddenly seemed alive. Unlike how he dragged his ass on to the debate stage, he practically trotted at the party, waved and was engaged with the people in the room.
• Prior to the debate, MAGA people, starting with Trump, said Biden would be “jacked up.” Just the opposite was true. If there were drugs, they were downers.
• I see the Inquirer editorial board said Biden won the debate, by a small margin. Won? Really? As I wrote the other day, who “won” will be decided by three groups of people. The Inquirer falls into the first group, of anti-Trump mainstream media, despite the presence of a couple of house conservatives. The real people who saw the debate felt Biden lost, and the people using social media will also feel Biden lost, because he had more visible stumbles than Trump.
• The business about the golf match should be an SNL sketch.
• Democrats should draft Josh Shapiro,
• A week before the debate Democratic strategist James Carville predicted Trump would not show up for the debate. He wins the prize for the dumbest prediction of the week.