Ghosting

Election Countdown:  The last debate is behind us.  Trump managed to control his inner seethe a little while odiously saying that he’s done more for Black people than anyone and is the least racist person in the room or anywhere;  that the separated, caged kids had been taken from coyotes rather than their parents and that anyway they’re being well treated so all that was fine; that we’re learning to live with the virus;  and that his health care plan will be here in two weeks.  Trump also tried to spear Biden with the shards of the Giuliani laptop, bringing up China and Hunter as frequently as possible, probably not the best strategy given his crime family and his Chinese bank account but totally in character given his tendency to project his crimes onto his adversaries.  As is his nature Trump lied a lot, so much so that CNN’s star fact checker Daniel Dale likened calling out Trump’s lies in real time to Lucille Ball’s attempts to manage those bon bon’s streaming off the assembly line in the famous “I Love Lucy” candy episode.  Dale noted that Biden lied a couple of times too, but that his paled in comparison to Trump’s.  Biden, who stumbled and stuttered a bit, wasn’t perfect but had clearly done his homework.  He got in a few good zingers, calling Trump a regular Abe Lincoln when he asserted he was the least racist person around, saying that Americans were learning to die with the virus rather than live with it, and effectively tearing into Trump’s comments about the separated children.  Humorously, he mangled the name of the Proud Boys, accidentally rebranding them as the Poor Boys.  He also managed to dodge Trump’s attacks on Hunter while also defusing Trump’s insistence that he was controlled by the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic party, reminding Trump that he, not Bernie, was the candidate. Addressing the country, Biden also said “you know who I am, you know who he is…you know his character and you know my character.” We can only hope that enough people get that or at the very least understand that four more years of Trump’s character is likely to be lethal, not just metaphorically but really.  In summary, Trump didn’t have that pivotal moment he needed, Biden held his own, and NBC’s Kristen Welker, despite Trump’s pre debate attacks, did a relatively good job, which probably explains why Trump was caught mouthing it’s all bull sh-t in her direction as he departed the podium to the not very welcoming Melania, well at least until he politely nodded in Welker’s direction after realizing that he was being one upped by the ever gracious Biden who had gone over to thank her for her efforts. 

Politics Unusual:  For some reason in the run up to the debate Trump and his team of facilitators thought that releasing the unedited White House tape of his interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl was a good idea.  Putting aside that the tape was supposed to be for the archives and that releasing it was a violation of the WH’s agreement with CBS, the decision to release it made little sense as it was far from flattering.  Notably, in addition to highlighting Trump’s hostility and how annoyed he was when Stahl said she planned to ask tough questions, the tape included him saying that he was looking forward to the Supreme Court ruling against the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, because that would be a good thing.  Hardly a selling point in a pandemic or ever.  The tape wasn’t the only thing released before the debate, the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal posted a piece in its opinion section detailing the Rudy laptop/Hunter Biden affair.  Notably it was not included in the news section probably because none of the reporters on that side of the paper wanted to have anything to do with it. By the way the WSJ thought that Trump performed swimmingly last night, had little nice to say about Biden and seemed awfully concerned that a Biden victory could hurt the long term viability of the fossil fuel industry.  And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that, in a variation of their 2016 playbook, the Trump team brought Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former associate, to the debate last night in an attempt to validate the Rudy laptop while muddying and unnerving Joe.  It didn’t work and at least so far does not appear to be moving the election needle.  Emphasis on the “so far.” 

Et Cetera:  There’s still no agreement on virus relief legislation but Amy Coney Barrett has moved one step closer to confirmation because that’s how Mitch McConnell rolls. Despite DNI Ratcliffe’s assertions that Iran is the problem, the NY Times reports that US election officials are far more concerned about Russia as Vlad and his cronies have hacked further into the election infrastructure than has been reported and are likely to sow discord after the election, especially if the results are uncertain. Amy for life, Vlad on the attack, the virus still raging. What’s there to worry about?   And one more thing, despite Trump’s best efforts to write us off, New York City is not a ghost town, though most of us would be happy to ghost him on Election Day.   

Eleven Days.