The consensus of a lot of people on the Vice Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris was that anything had to be better that last week's debacle of a debate where Donald Trump tried to shout and bully his way past Joe Biden.
Just please let there be less shouting.
Well, for the debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, there was less shouting.
I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing.
Mary Trump, the Trump family working like hell to get Li'l Donnie out of the White House, had this to say on Twitter.
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There is no daylight between Donald and Mike Pence. He is just as cruel, just as mendacious, and just as culpable. But sure, let him keep lying and projecting.
Here is my reply to that.
Level 1:
Pence is Calm Crazy vs Li'l Donnie who is Crazy Crazy
As the evening wore on, I began to feel ill, nauseous even, listening to Mike Pence trot out the same lies, the same obfuscations, the same distortions as Donald Trump. But Pence isn't yelling and sweating profusely. His voice was one of measured calm, projecting a sense of being perfectly reasonable.
The sheer banality of Mike Pence's performance was worrisome to me. Acing "normal" while still spewing bullshit is a great way to hide that it's bullshit.
Halfway through the debate, a fly landed on Mike Pence's head and stayed there for two minutes.
Here's what the fly said after the debate.
I offer my thoughts and prayers to the VP Debate fly in this challenging time.
Should we get a medical opinion on this? Here's the guy who played the Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager.
Not saying that the attracts flies. It’s the sh*t flying out of his mouth.
More about the fly? Here's my Twitter pal Bryan Behar with a comment.
Level 1:
Kamala Harris is lecturing a white man with a fly on his head on racial justice.
This is good tv. #VPDebate
OK, there was the part where I think Bryan went over the line.
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Mike Pence has all the charm of a medieval crypt keeper. #VPDebate
Meanwhile, how did Kamala Harris do?
Well, no flies on her so that's a start.
Harris came out swinging for the fences, calling Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.”
Kamala Harris had to assert her right to be heard on several occasions. While Pence was nowhere at the level of Donald Trump, he did still interrupt or overtalk her enough that Harris took issue more than once with the moderator: "He interrupted me, and I'd like to just finish please."
A lot of women on Twitter empathize with that. For example, this tweet:
"He interrupted me, and I'd like to just finish please," is a line every woman who has ever attended a meeting with men can relate to.
To be fair, both Pence and Harris had a bad habit of not answering the question that was asked and both always went over their allotted time. Pence was more egregious in the regarding going over his time limits twice as much as Harris.
Moderator Susan Page of USA Today was better able to keep things on track and under control better than Chris Wallace last week but Chris did have a shouting, sweaty rage monster to contend with.
Mike Pence had a deflection trick that really got on my nerves. Going back to Harris's attack on Trump's pandemic response, Pence's retort was that the American people did an excellent job in meeting the challenges of the pandemic.
I will agree with Pence that many heroic Americans were outstanding in their response to the challenges of the pandemic. Because they were getting jack shit in the way of help or support from Donald Trump.
Pence kept trying to cast criticisms of Donald Trump as insults against the American people. Li'l Donnie's inner autocrat must be pleased.
Also Mike Pence used this old chestnut against Kamala Harris a couple of times: "You are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts." Given Trump's propensity for ignoring facts and science as well as his indulgence in conspiracy theories, Pence's use of that expression was particularly galling.
From what I'm seeing online, the consensus is that Kamala came out on top of her debate with Mike but I will admit my various social media feeds might be biased in favor of Senator Harris.
I still worry. Pence took all the crazy lies of Donald Trump and glazed over them with a veneer of banal civility. Which is a more insidious challenge than any shouting, sweaty rage monster.
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What, pray tell, is the future of Master Debaters?
My next Master Debaters post would've been after the 2nd Trump/Biden match up.
But...
The debate commission has decided the next Trump/Biden match up will be a virtual debate due to Trump being infected with COVID-19.
Trump said fuck that virtual shit, he's not going to play, he doesn't think he's contagious and wants to go back to holding more rallies.
Whither, Master Debaters?
Well, who cares, Li'l Donnie? I didn't want to do a blog post on your stupid debate anyway, you big stupid head!
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