US Debate Review: She’s Electric

On Kamala’s Dominating Debate Performance

Kamala Harris won the debate, and doesn’t it feel great.

There’s no real take to have other than that. Trump was an utter disgrace at this debate. He was terrible in the debate, giving answers about his personal vanity and grievances instead of proposing plans. Kamala was assured, calm, sane, and centrist. She mostly did a good job of pivoting off of hard questions to answers that do more for her. She told her story in a compelling way, but more importantly she stayed where the public are.

Were all of her answers my taste? No. In an ideal world I’d prefer she was, amongst other things, less friendly to the Israeli government. But this is politics, and the public is to my right. Acknowledging that is the beginning of this process. Kamala did her job. “You were fired by 81 Million people” is an all time line, but more than that, Trump is failing his own campaign.

His abortion answers will be ad fodder for Democrats. The fact that Trump refused to say he’d veto an abortion ban is a gift to Democrats. That he kept getting baited to Democratic issues is a failure of his. Trump’s failures are clear. And he exposed all of those tonight.

The most important part of the night is Kamala Harris’ total refusal to engage with Biden’s record where it’s unhelpful. It’s a great choice by her, but it’s notable she felt zero compulsion to defend him. It’s probably not a hugely election deciding matter, but it’s very notable that she knows that he isn’t worth defending. It’s a good sign that her campaign knows what it needs to do to win. This was a great debate from Harris, and one that should reassure a lot of nerves about her.

Will it matter? Probably not, but also assuredly so. It won’t deliver the knockout punch that so many want Trump to have delivered - and that, plainly, he deserves. But it’s not going to be delivered in a debate. To the extent there is a reliable anti-Trump majority in the country (and in the Electoral College), it is tiny. The frightening fact is that something like 48% of America is perfectly fine with the threat of fascism. 48% of America is in line to vote for a dangerous wannabe authoritarian not necessarily because of his authoritarianism, but they don’t find his authoritarianism a sufficient threat to their country to not vote for him.

From 30000 feet, it’s absolutely insane that someone so obviously unqualified for the job is here. And it’s a remarkable, and frankly horrifying, reminder of how fucked America is that this man is this close to another term. His answers were rambling and incoherent and full of lies. It won’t change the fundamental truth of this race, which is that it’s a fucking disgrace it’s competitive at all.

It seems like it will matter on the margins, because this is the type of performance that has historically boosted polling in the short run. If all this does is get Nate Silver’s forecast back to a Harris lead and get her some good fundraising days, it’ll be a success. The bull case for Harris is that her campaign has the ground game and the financial edge to close well. Tonight could only have helped.

For Trump, I don’t think tonight was a disaster, if only because of the insanely low expectations on which he plays. It’s not worth complaining about it incessantly because if you’re playing the refs you’re generally not playing the game on the field, but it’s true that it’s insane. But then again, all of this is.

I wrote for TheLines that Harris was a slight favourite this morning. Nothing that happened tonight has moved me off this point, and I think Harris did the job she needed to do tonight. Those hoping for a West Wing 10 word knockout will be disappointed, but that’s not about Kamala’s performance, that’s about the state of your country. As a Canadian currently being called a Russian asset for daring to believe the polls, you have my sympathies and understanding.

There’s just two months left. Harris is in this race. Let’s fucking hope she can close as well as she met this task tonight.