One of Trump's biggest problems is that he's not articulate, doesn't express himself well.
I had already concluded that, but it was quite obvious during his recent interview with Rush, who is very articulate, which is why he's so successful as a talk show host. Oprah is very articulate also.
Articulateness and intelligence are two different things, that have no direct correlation, though the latter may, but does not necessarily, predispose to the former.
Trump is formidably intelligent, and his thoughts race ahead of his words.
Another part of his formidable intelligence, I think, is that he sees the large picture of things, stretching into the distant future and the distance past, sweeping also into the present, but must then stop and focus on the minutiae, the details, and the present, an ability that would be impossible for someone of less towering intelligence, but which President Trump does, as a matter or course, leading him to brilliant, innovative, and truthful conclusions, and baffling the less benevolent and less intelligent.
His self-serving enemies who do not understand him, his intelligence and his benevolence, lack the wit and the inclination to do so, find him enigmatic, and dismiss this brilliant and heroic man to their peril and dishonour.
I think he actually is articulate. He's just not a gifted orator or a wordsmith. I agree that his thoughts do race ahead of his words, which makes him hard to listen to at times. When he follows the teleprompter he becomes more measured and disciplined in his speaking and makes for a good listen.
I chalk it up to Trump not being a politician.
Many people say Pence is dull. He may be, but he showed what a good politician he was at the debate. He had a prepared articulate answer for just about every question and spoke slowly so the audience could take it in.
Biden did some of that during his debate, was able to articulate his points, came across as presidential at times. His 47 years as a politician paid off.
Trump had the winning arguments. He just didn’t spell them out very well, especially the Covid one. I thought Pence did a better job with that, especially pointing out Joe’s swine flu failure.
“he (Trump) sees the large picture of things, ... but must then stop and focus on the minutiae”
That’s true. Another problem is that he assumes the citizens are smarter than they really are. For me, two things that he could have done better when it comes to putting the minutiae out there:
Absentee vs Mail-in voting. He assumes that low-i.q. voters understand the difference — that they understand what Absentee Voting is. They don’t, and think that because both are done via USPS, they’re equal. Absentee Voting creates an absolute paper trail from beginning (voter’s legal written request) to end (returned ballot, logged in), identifying the voter. Mail-in is ballots dropped willy-nilly for any person, dead or alive, to pick up and mail in. HE knows the difference, but never fills in that “middle part”.
The MSM is complicit. Even though they DO know the difference, in order to stir up trouble, they treat both as equal, especially when Trumps participate in the Absentee method.
Fossil fuels. He and surrogates refer to “fossil fuels”. HE knows what that means, and WE know what that means. But everybody doesn’t. They hear the phrase and think, “Yeah; whatever.” But if they’d hear that Biden is going to get rid of “gas and oil”, that would get their attention.