A Master Class
Kamala Harris could have done one thing better Tuesday night. Otherwise, it was a master class in debate prep and performance.
She seemed nervous answering the first question: “When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?”
She began, “So, I was raised as a middle-class kid. And I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.”
She should have started with something like, “Yes, because we have cleaned up the economic mess the former President left when he mishandled the pandemic.”
But that’s the hyper-critical debate-prep vet in me talking. She gets all A’s for the rest of the night. She rattled Trump. She shredded his record and his character. She delivered the positive, forward-looking message – including a plan for her Presidency – that Americans yearn for.
When Trump claimed, “I did a great service” on abortion by getting rid of Roe v Wade, she shot back with emotion:
“I have talked with women around our country. You want to talk about this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? …. A 12 or 13-year-old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don’t want that.”
Another strategically brilliant moment didn’t get much attention.
Trump refused – twice – to say if he wanted Ukraine to win its war with Russia. He said, “I will get it settled before I even become president.”
Harris pounced: “I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up.”
Then she pivoted: “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland. And why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”
That one answer made Trump look weak AND made an appeal to voters who can decide not only Pennsylvania, but the whole presidential election.
Watching the debate was like looking through the machine at the eye doctor when the lenses shift and everything comes into focus.
Trump came into focus as a spent force – a weak, weary, washed-up old man.
We saw Harris, for the first time, as our President.
You can read a transcript of the debate here. It should be required reading in politics and debate classes.
A Master Class
Kamala Harris could have done one thing better Tuesday night. Otherwise, it was a master class in debate prep and performance.
She seemed nervous answering the first question: “When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?”
She began, “So, I was raised as a middle-class kid. And I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.”
She should have started with something like, “Yes, because we have cleaned up the economic mess the former President left when he mishandled the pandemic.”
But that’s the hyper-critical debate-prep vet in me talking. She gets all A’s for the rest of the night. She rattled Trump. She shredded his record and his character. She delivered the positive, forward-looking message – including a plan for her Presidency – that Americans yearn for.
When Trump claimed, “I did a great service” on abortion by getting rid of Roe v Wade, she shot back with emotion:
“I have talked with women around our country. You want to talk about this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? …. A 12 or 13-year-old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don’t want that.”
Another strategically brilliant moment didn’t get much attention.
Trump refused – twice – to say if he wanted Ukraine to win its war with Russia. He said, “I will get it settled before I even become president.”
Harris pounced: “I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up.”
Then she pivoted: “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland. And why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”
That one answer made Trump look weak AND made an appeal to voters who can decide not only Pennsylvania, but the whole presidential election.
Watching the debate was like looking through the machine at the eye doctor when the lenses shift and everything comes into focus.
Trump came into focus as a spent force – a weak, weary, washed-up old man.
We saw Harris, for the first time, as our President.
You can read a transcript of the debate here. It should be required reading in politics and debate classes.