So, Trump was Trump. Wallace was Wallace. Biden was Biden. I think our President knew exactly how this was going to turn out. I believe that this played as he intended.
The aim is not to win the debate. It’s to win the election. Biden said a fair number of things tonight that will come back to haunt him big time, such as “Antifa is just an idea.” (Repeated several times.) Trump destroyed Biden on Hunter Biden (who Joe confused with Beau). And so forth.
Trump was “too pugilistic.” But when has that hurt him long term?
I predict that Biden will cancel his last debate. This is the only 90 minutes of the entire general campaign that we will see him take questions. It is the only time that Biden will come untethered from his teleprompter. And so I ask others here to imagine the voter who was undecided going into this debate. They may recoil from what they saw of PDJT tonight. But was it much of a surprise? And are they really going to go into the voting booth on election day and risk putting Biden into office through 2024?
Trump hurt himself tonight short term. He may have helped himself win the election.
As for Biden, this debate SHOULD force him toward the center, as he tries to correct for some serious problems in his own debate performance tonight. He looked bad bad bad on Hunter Biden, on law and order, on Antifa. He did not once repudiate the left even a little bit. He did not decline to pack the Supreme Court or to end the filibuster. Trump will pound him on these things. I predict that rather than correct for these, Biden instead goes back into his basement and tries to say nothing, thinking that his lead now is insurmountable. This, I predict, will be his undoing.
I still predict a Trump victory, even though I think in the next few days that his poll numbers will suffer and even though the election seems to me to be Biden’s to lose. I just can’t get over how often the Dems are intent on losing. It’s the President’s ace in the hole.
I think you make some solid points about the debate. In my view we Trump supporters are disappointed because Trump has been on such a roll lately and we expect him to be on his game all the time. There is 5 weeks till the election and the president will be campaigning tirelessly everywhere. Biden will slog along slowly and drawing small crowds. This is going to be won on the ground and Trump by far has the energy on his side.
Biden gave Trump some real gifts tonight especially his intention to shut the country down again over Covid until he says it’s under control. To me, this was a damning mistake on Biden’s part and the president needs to hammer it. Biden declared himself the Democrat Party tonight and made 3 terrible mistakes. One, he claims there is no socialist manifesto. See if he repeats that again under pressure with Bernie and AOC breathing down his neck. Two, he says Antifa is just an idea and not an actual organized group of anarchists. Three, as THE Democrat Party he admitted he has not lifted a finger to influence the Portlannd mayor or OR gov to get the riots under control. He is no leader, he’s a lackey of the Left. Trump can destroy Biden with this and other stuff for the next 5 weeks.