The Silly in Philly

Sometimes when writing a piece, one gets stuck on the “lede,” that pithy  opener that encapsulates the rest of the story.

But for last night’s triple sucker punch absurdity, there are a plethora of choices, so let’s try out a few and you decide.

Just because you won doesn’t mean you didn’t cheat.

Pick a face and stick with it.

No word salad, just a buffet of lies.

Do they still make those foam bricks to throw at televisions?

Tuesday’s debate was like watching one of those feel good local news features during which a kid with cancer is allowed to score a touchdown in a real game.  It was that staged.

Oh. why could this not have happened?

All of that being true, Donald Trump did not have great night.  Sentences started and not finished and missed opportunities galore (speaking of which: I’m going to stop writing pre-debate stories about how California has to come up).

The segment on Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio will not age well, though nor will ABC’s David Muir insistence that it’s not happening because the city manager says it didn’t. As a former city elected official, I can state categorically and without fear of contradiction that city managers lie about potentially embarrassing stories and not just to the public but to their electeds as well. Trust me.

As to what substance there was, Kamala Harris trotted out what must be a new talking point, creating an “economy of opportunity.”  She was a bit vague on what that meant, except for maybe shelling out government money.

She spoke of the importance of small businesses – good – but then used the nanny she had growing up as an example of a small business owner – bad.

Harris also leaned heavily into the abortion issue, though refused to answer if she supported late term abortions. She does, as do most Democratic leaders, but they know they can never ever say that in public.

Trump said the decision as to its legality is now with the states, where it should be, but still appeared to be a bit intentionally wiggly on the issue in general.

In a particularly condescending moment, Harris essentially went “basket of deplorables” when she asked people to go to Trump’s rallies and – essentially – look at all of the weirdoes.

Trump did have a few good lines, like asking why no one has been fired due to the various instances of gross incompetence, like the Afghanistan withdrawal, which have littered the Biden-Harris administration.

He also said he took a bullet to the head because of the lies told about him by Harris and her leftist supporters and that countries need “good borders and good elections.”

As to the border, Harris dodged and weaved and the ABC folks based their answers on incorrect and incomplete data (of course,) but the subject did allow Trump to ask Harris to wake up Joe Biden today at 4 p.m. and ask him to sign an executive order closing the border.  It’s true – he actually could.

On the matter Kamala’s racial identity, when asked why he had dared to question Harris’ occasional use of an ethnicity of convenience, Trump said he doesn’t care about that.

“She can be whatever she wants to be,” said Trump.  “Black, not black, puts out…”

Somehow that last bit regarding her allegedly horizontal rise to power was ignored.

One thing was made very clear last night – the lying will not end because Harris will never be actually forced to tell the truth and it is not in her nature to automatically default to doing so. But at least she could try not lying about things that known objective falsehoods, like the ”fine people” claim from Charlottesville and the events of January 6.  No, Kamala, 140 officers were not hurt that day.

The question now is – will any of that matter?  It seems no, not really – the first polls out today show little if any change in support for either candidate.

So maybe there really should be another debate…just not on ABC this time.