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Victor Davis Hanson: An Anatomy of the Post-Debate Detritus
American Greatness ^ | 16 Sep, 2024 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 09/16/2024 5:01:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber

While Harris initially appeared to win the September 2024 presidential debate by sticking to prepped strategy and benefiting from biased moderation, she's failed to gain a lasting boost in the polls.

After the September 10, 2024, presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the Harris campaign became giddy.

And why not?

Pre-debate conventional wisdom had assured the country that underdog Harris would shock the nation with her endless wash/rinse/spin word salads of repeated phrases and memorized sound bites.

She supposedly would prove as shaky as Trump—the veteran of several presidential debates—would prove merciless in eviscerating her.

That did not happen. Post-debate polls of the first 24 hours showed clearly that the public felt Harris had won.

Why?

She stuck religiously to her pre-debate prep. It was not difficult to anticipate what her tripartite script would be. Joe Biden’s failed debate with Trump offered a model, along with the need to avoid Harris’s own known linguistic and cognitive liabilities:

One, Harris was told to bait the touchy Trump with smears and slights about his failed rallies, his racism, and his shaky businesses. That way she could trigger him to lose his cool, go off-topic, rant, and turn off viewers.

And he did just that and often. Trump clearly did not prepare detailed answers, was not ready to be insulted, and was not reminded to relax—and smile, joke, and in Reaganesque fashion sluff off her certain slurs.

Two, she was not supposed to try thinking on her feet, no matter what the question asked.

Instead, Harris was always ordered to plug in her prepped and canned anecdotes, banalities, and bio-stories regardless of the topic or question. And she followed that off-topic boilerplate to spec.

Three, the campaign apparently knew they could rely on the moderators for four givens:

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bs; concerntrolling; debate; harrislost; trumpharrisdebate; vdh; victordavishanson
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1 posted on 09/16/2024 5:01:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

It exposed how the MSM riggs things for the democRATs.


2 posted on 09/16/2024 5:01:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: texas booster

VDH ping


3 posted on 09/16/2024 5:01:46 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

.


4 posted on 09/16/2024 5:05:22 AM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: MtnClimber

BTTT


5 posted on 09/16/2024 5:18:12 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: MtnClimber

How anyone would put any stock in anything ABC (the Stephanopolous/Sorority Channel) says after this biased fiasco is beyond me. I have boycotted the state run media for years and this convinces me that I did the right thing.


6 posted on 09/16/2024 5:31:27 AM PDT by laconic ( )
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To: 5th MEB; 6ppc; agondonter; Alberta's Child; AndyJackson; Aria; artichokegrower; ...
Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list

At times, Harris was a Rodin-like “Thinker,” looking contemplative with a strutting chin and propping it up with a closed hand. At times, with a wink-and-nod, she privately communicated to the audience their supposedly shared exasperation at her outrageous opponent. And at times she rolled her eyes, batted her eyelids, raised her eyebrows, and lip-synched her cynical disdain to 67 million viewers.

Yeah, it is a great article, well worth your time to read and to share! From the one and only Prof Hanson.

FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR

Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall

American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness

His website: Victor Davis Hanson

Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.

As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.

Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience.

https://freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index

7 posted on 09/16/2024 5:41:34 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: MtnClimber

cut the cable tv


8 posted on 09/16/2024 5:52:26 AM PDT by joshua c
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To: MtnClimber

“I will snatch their patent, so that we [the American government] will take over. And, yes, we can do that! Yes! Yes, we can do that! Yes, we can do that! It’s the question is, do you have the will do it? I have the will do it!”

“I support a mandatory buyback program.”

“I’m open to this conversation about extending the number of people on the United States Supreme Court”

https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/09/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-kamala-in-her-own-words-in-one-place/


9 posted on 09/16/2024 5:54:26 AM PDT by Brian Griffin ("Why didn’t she do it three and a half years ago?”)
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To: MtnClimber
Anyone notice how they positioned President Trump's microphone too low? He had to bend down
to speak, while Kambala could stand erect and speak? It is an insult worthy of Roland Freisler.

10 posted on 09/16/2024 5:56:54 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: MtnClimber

Amongst all the Pros and Cons is the key point is that Trump had been able to say something that the Dems had not heard from the MSM, their ONLY NEWS SOURCE.

Why hasn’t Kamala done anything about the economy, inflation, crime and immigration for the past 3.5 years. She doesn’t have an answer for that other than incompetence.

When people enter the voting booth they vote with their pocketbook.


11 posted on 09/16/2024 6:11:37 AM PDT by IAGeezer912 (One out of every 20 people on the face of the earth are Americans. We have won life's lottery.)
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To: MtnClimber

This is by far the best analysis I have seen, it is long but it has to be to unpack the “debate” line by line

After watching this I have even more respect for Trump
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_MWLeUCOvJA


12 posted on 09/16/2024 6:15:15 AM PDT by blitz128
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To: MtnClimber
This is another tremendous and accurate post by VDH. What an intellect that's so sorely needed in times like this.

Here's the bottom line. Trump lost, and 67 million watched it happen. He should have been better prepared, but he was not.

Will this loss be reflected in the election? I don't know -- and neither does anyone else. Only time will tell, but on the surface, it does not seem that it will, as noted in the polling and per VDH's opinion (though not clearly stated).

However, it does shed light on his weakness and not his strengths.

13 posted on 09/16/2024 6:24:18 AM PDT by icclearly
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To: icclearly

Most focus groups said Trump was convincing to them
After this debate people who loved Harris loved her even more
The undecided were now leaning towards Trump
Harris can have many more victories like this


14 posted on 09/16/2024 6:38:37 AM PDT by italianquaker
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To: laconic
"I have boycotted the state run media for years and this convinces me that I did the right thing.

I started my boycott of "national media" in 1975. Haven't watched a news report since. I watch local news only, and record it so I can fast forward through commercials and local news coverage of "national media" stories.

15 posted on 09/16/2024 6:58:34 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (NRA Life Member)
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To: icclearly

No. Harris didn’t win the debate.


16 posted on 09/16/2024 7:02:01 AM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: MtnClimber

VDH may have spoken too soon about there being “no evidence” of ABC providing questions to the Harris camp as Twitter/X’er Black Insurectionist is provided some yesterday.

https://x.com/DocNetyoutube


17 posted on 09/16/2024 7:04:13 AM PDT by traderrob6
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To: MtnClimber; Lakeside Granny; Jane Long; djstex

“Failed Rallies”?

Seriously? I have watched nearly every one of them on this site, and NOT ONE of them could be called a “failed rally”.

Even the Butler rally was a triumph...maybe the biggest one of all for Trump, because it displayed not only his courage, dignity, and commitment, but also that of his supporters.

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!


18 posted on 09/16/2024 7:59:12 AM PDT by left that other site ("Providence" ain't just a city in Rhode Island.)
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To: italianquaker
Most focus groups said Trump was convincing to them

I'm not sure VDH agreed with them (per the article).

Anyway, it really boils down to the so-called swing states. The chart below shows a slight edge to Harris.

Click on image to enlarge

Better yet, if he can win PA and NC, along with the other red states below -- we all win!

Click on image to enlarge

19 posted on 09/16/2024 8:13:19 AM PDT by icclearly
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To: icclearly

Yep, Trump needs PA and NC and AZ and that’s the ball game.


20 posted on 09/16/2024 8:16:09 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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