The Great Debate

Both candidates were better than I expected

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were well-behaved in the debate. Trump was his typical self, and there were few surprises. Harris was atypically calm and well-rehearsed, but went out of her way to lie about Trump’s history and policies. Some of her blatant lies are these:

• She attributed Project 25 to Trump. Trump has no relationship to Project 25 and has long since disavowed its content.

• She claimed Trump would enact federal legislation banning abortion. This is an outright lie. Trump correctly stated the matter is now before the States and is not within federal jurisdiction after the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade and finding abortion was properly a State issue, not a federal one, under the Constitution.

• She claimed Trump was against IVF when Trump has been a strong proponent of IVF at all times. Another outright lie.

• She claimed Trump was responsible for the border problems since she alleges he called in chips from Republicans to block a bi-partisan deal to strengthen the border with an added provision that provided a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. She gave no credible explanation as to why in the three and one half years before that bi-partisan proposal was rejected by Congress to take actions to protect the border and ignored the many executive orders the Biden administration issues on day one that dismantled the effective border policies that were in place under Trump. Trump may well have had a hand in blocking the bi-partisan deal but its inclusion of a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants was unlikely to pass both houses of Congress in any event.

• She alleged Trump made a comment that “there were good people on both sides” during the Charlotteville riots, a claim long since “debunked” by all reputable sources. She and the Democrats took a few words out of context, ignored the words that preceded and followed the words they selected, an overtly tried to mislead Americans. Another outright lie.

• Harris blamed Trump for the rampant inflation that occurred during the Biden-Harris regime (which regime continues today). That is an absurd claim unsupported by any factual foundation. Biden-Harris policies fueled the inflation that raised the cost of living by over 20% since Biden took office, including massive spending, money squandered on “renewables” that drove up the cost of energy, and a persistent nonsensical claim that CO2 emissions cause climate change manifesting itself in an oddly worded “Inflation Reduction Act” that increased inflation rather than reducing it by pouring billions of subsidies into “green” businesses that had no economic basis for existence without subsidies.

Harris made some strong points as well. Her child tax credit proposal and “no tax on tips” may be copies of Trump policies but are sound policies in any event. Trump said he would get her a MAGA hat which made me smile, but I admire Harris for at least paying lip service to the wisdom of those two policies. Her reversals on “fracking”, border security and the Green New Deal stretch credibility but taken at face value are sensible policies. Those reversal are so dramatically different from her strongly voiced positions from 2019 through this campaign suggest they are statements made to attract votes rather than a basis for future policy. Caveat emptor.

Harris was a proponent of “medicare for all” with curbs on private insurance but now says she supports a public-private set up. If sincere, this is an important reversal of her views on policy and she is to be admired for taking such a step.

Harris claimed she was a strong supporter of Israel and tried to walk a line between support for Israel and a future two state solution that benefits both Israel and Palestine. The mid-East is a complex issue and Harris seems to recognize that is the case. She had little to offer in terms of a solution, and no one should criticize her for that lack since Trump has no publicly stated plan to bring about peace in the region either.

One nice feature of the debate was the excellent moderation by the hosts who (despite their leftist leanings) were reasonably balanced in their treatment of the candidates, asked relevant questions, and demonstrated a level of journalist skill that had been absent in their public appearances for some time.

I was impressed that Trump shook hands with Harris at the outset, a level of grace missing from his debate with Biden years earlier. Trump did score key points in his summing up moments, reminding viewers that the Biden-Harris regime has been in office for 3.5 years and enacted none of the policies Harris claims she will enact once made President, never making any effort to explain why not.

On balance, I think Harris “won” the debate since expectations for her were very low and she handled herself reasonably well. As I said earier, Trump was Trump and did himself neither harm nor help through his demeanour which was calm and respectful.