By Pepper Parr
September 11th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Did you watch the Trump – Harris debate.
If you didn’t you should have.
Now – I’d like to hear what you thought.
Did he win or did she win?
Was was the line that you’ll not forget?
Mine was the dogs that are eaten by immigrant in Wisconsin.
The other one that I loved was an MSNBC commentator saying that the election would be determined by the 800,00 Poles in Pennsylvania who would for for Harris after the comment made by Trump that after defeating Ukraine he would be going after Poland.
The other one that many may have missed was when Trump said Viktor Orban, “a respected world leader had nice things to say about me.” Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans won’t know who Viktor Orban is.
If looks could kill – Donald Trump was dead.
Just a quick question to all the commentators here: if the claim of domestic animals and wild birds being killed and eaten in Springfield, Ohio, were proven to be true, would that give you pause to rethink all his other claims? I have no interest in DJT other than people’s thought processes towards him.
In my opinion, that’s a silly question to ask.
His claim regarding those animals has already been debunked by City officials, State officials and others.
It has been shown on numerous occasions he makes wild claims without any evidence or proof that she went to Kiev 3 days before the Russian invasion is true. She did go. But he said she went there to negotiate a peace settlement. That is just make believe on his part. She never met with Putin. She went to Kiev to demonstrate support of Ukraine.
Really? I must disagree. Have you seen new immigrants fishing for Carp in the Bay? I have. Have you seen the recent videos and news reports of illegal fishing of new comers in Canadian rivers. Societal and cultural norms of other countries aren’t dropped when someone crosses a border. A lot of denial going around.
Has it, are you sure? Is it so very hard to imagine that it could be true and then to spend a few hours researching if at all that could be the case, and then questioning why, and finding that that is even more interesting?
Trump last night and GOPers today are asking why Harris has not done in the past three years what she is promising will be achieved in the next four years with her as President.
But they fail to take the next step and ask the same question of the orange guy. Why did Trump not fix the border when he was President?
The GOP are concerned that Harris is setting her own course and is tacking towards the centre on some issues. They would prefer to label her as a left wing socialist. According to DJT there is no need for a VP other than to affirm he won the election, which the VP did not do, instead risking his life to honour the constitution.
How can this race even be close?
Kamala Harris shredded Trump and won the debate, hands down. I am amazed at how many people can look past Trumps record of lying, cheating, and a host of other unacceptable behaviours because he may or may not have done what he claims to have done as President, because everything that comes out of his mouth has to be fact checked.
Mussolini also a dictator apparently did some good. We know what happened to him and his pal Hitler. Trump admires the likes of Victor Orban.
I rest my case.
It’s objectively clear that Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump last night. I think she effectively introduced herself as a smart, well-prepared and confident candidate to those 30% of the US electorate who apparently didn’t know much about her. Trump was Trump; “move along, nothing to see here”. Will it move the needle? Not sure, but the subsequent Taylor Swift endorsement may! I would be interested in understanding the % of her 280 million followers who are of voting age & live in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia or Arizona. They may be even more fanatical in their following of her than their current political party. Only in America!
In a modern democracy – the successful candidate is the one who most appeals to the most voters.
Did he win or did she win?
Depends upon what the aim of the debate was?
If it was about appealing to some American voter’s love for outlandish stories:
Tales of: canine consumption, chumming with dictators, the murder of newborn babies, finger pointing and not answering questions – then Trump won easily.
I kept waiting for a real debate, following the mic rules enforced by the moderators. I really did wait pretty much in vain.
Trump essentially never answered the debate questions posed to him, or in the time limits, that were not generally enforced as he kept on with his repetitive lying egotistic babble-bashing Biden and Harris for everything. Then he claimed credit, in monuments terms, for everything. The Polish dog-eaters was over the top. What happened to the mic muting rule?
I have no idea of what he is going to do, and he had no intention of telling us anything definite. All I really heard, AGAIN, was he will just behave the way he always has, doing what he wants, as it is baked into his being. He saved the USA and they ruined it. If elected Pres. he will save the World, and they will bring WW111.
Harris was at least coherent in her narrative, and gave some specific policy details for the future. I generally understood what she said, and to me, she always maintained her cool and respected the time limits.
One negative is the failure in Afghanistan, but she does not want to say something she will own in the coming days. I think she deserves at least one thing to separate herself from the VP obligatory Biden/Democrat policy frame debacle.
So by my limited possible reckoning:
The only coherency in Trump, to judge anything by, is same old, same old.
For Harris, Please save us from Trump.
Three against one.
Unlike Canada, where we get to vote for one person federally, Americans will be voting for the president, 33 senators (1/3 of the senate) and all 435 members of Congress.
My money is on a democratic president with a republican senate and Congress. Now how do we get an elected senate in Canada?
It all depends on one’s perspective. Harris spent most of the evening goading Trump who frankly kept his cool for the most part. She offered little to give voters a reason to vote for her and did not come across to me at least as Presidential. She is the place holder for the elites. US voters will have to decide if the devil you knew is better than the devil you currently have as she is status quo.
Yeah Harris won or maybe in reality Trump lost.
It annoyed me that the moderators allowed Trump to jump in at the end of each question and get the last word when time had been called on the subject. Sometimes talking over the moderator who was trying to get to the next question. The moderators should have put him in his place and told him to be quiet.
On a number of occasions, the moderator asked him a very clear question and as usual he totally avoided answering it by going back to something else and rambling on. The moderators again should reined him in. Harris, on the other hand, when asked a question would also go back to clarify a position on the previous subject but would then move on to address the question asked of her. I’m not saying she always was directly answering the questions. There was a lot of talking around subjects. But that’s the way politicians are. They never answer the question asked of them. As they call it, they pivot to what they want to talk about. Too often the questioner does not rein them back in. Here in Canada. Andrew Scheer Is a prime example of never answering the question posed. It’s an awful expression, but in my opinion Harris did look presidential. Cool, calm and collected. Though I do wish like others she would would tone down the grin and cackle. Hopefully now that she has the official Taylor Swift endorsement vast numbers of Swifties will vote for Harris. In my opinion Canada will be much better placed with Harris in the White House than it would if Trump returns.
Edited for content
I believe the moderators allowed Trump to “hog” the podium for 42minutes and 52 seconds while Harris was only allowed 37 minutes and 36 seconds. Trump was often given the last word and no rebuttal. In Trumps case less talking would have been to his benefit as it was mostly gibberish anyway.
The vast majority of ‘Swifties” are not of voting age, it is really an irrelevant endorsement.
“A Taylor Swift Instagram post helped drive a surge in voter registration”
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1201183160/taylor-swift-instagram-voter-registration
Trump may have trouble shaking this off.
That may be true, Bob, but political analysts think that the election could be decided by a margin of some tens of 1000s of votes in swing states. Within 12 hours of the debate, G&M reported 306,422 visitors to vote.gov via her URL. In my humble opinion, her endorsement may prove to be very relevant.
Numerous “Swifties” are accompanied to her concerts by their mothers, who vote.
I don’t know who won.I think that Harris benefited by exposure to voters who did not know much about her.
Bob
How do you come to your conclusion?
Source:- Forbes
“Some 53% of U.S. adults said they were fans of Swift, and 16% identified themselves as “avid” fans of the star.
Of avid fans, just 44% identified themselves as “Swifties,” the name given to members of Swift’s fanbase. Among avid fans, 74% are white, compared to 13% who are Black, 9% who are Asian and 4% who are members of other races.
Some 45% of avid fans are millennials, people between the ages of 27 and 42, while 23% are baby boomers, 21% are Gen Xers and just 11% are members of Gen Z—those 26 and under.
A slim majority, 55%, of avid Swift fans are Democrats, compared to 23% who are politically independent and 23% who are Republicans.
Her fanbase is evenly split across genders: 48% is male, and 52% is female, according to the survey.”
You may find her influence to be much greater and far broader than you think.
How does one decide who won the debate?
Trump ( who I wouldn’t ever vote for ) unfortunately could not keep his ego in check. I was surprised that he was as informed as he was. His remark about immigrants stealing and eating dogs and cats was absolutely ridiculous ( he must have gone off script ).
His statement that ” Putin would go after Poland next if Russia is successful in Ukraine” is a fear of many European Nations.
Did Kamala keep her cool – Yes. Did Kamala answer questions about the failed and horrible departure of troops etc in Afghanistan – NO. What about the fracking debacle ?
Trump had opportunities to push her to explain issues that have dogged the current administration and failed to do so.
Thankfully, I don’t have a vote in this election. Will people in the United States be voting democrat simply to keep Trump out of office, knowing full well that perhaps Kamala is not the right person to be President of the United States.
The next few months will be very interesting.
Harris won hands down and Trump went into his same old attack mode where nothing made sense especially when he started talking about immigrants stealing and eating dogs and cats. The moderators let him get in his final words way too often but this didn’t help him at all.