Vance vs Walz in a "historic" debate performance!
Also: CNN is very stupid, and possibly demonic.
Welp, last night was the vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, so I guess I’ve got to say something about it. I think it’s written into law somewhere.
In the run-up, pre-game, hype extravaganza, CNN called this debate a “historic” event. They clarified by adding that this will be the only debate between the two candidates before the election, therefore: history. QED.
That’s where our society is. A “major” news/opinion maker uses the term “historic” to describe an event because, well… it happened. Technically correct, I suppose, but I still snorted in front of my TV. It seemed pretty stupid.
The debate wasn’t much better.
Most of the debate was spent talking about immigration, the economy, and health care — and of course attacking/defending their hopeful “bosses”. These are important things, of course, but I thought both candidates dealt with things on a surface level, never really getting at the heart of the issues.
Maybe that’s good strategy? Maybe most voters don’t (or can’t) think deeply about these matters either?
What I found most interesting is the issues they didn’t talk about. Unless I missed it, the US proxy war with Russia in Ukraine wasn’t mentioned at all. The conflict in the Middle East was mentioned, but only briefly.
Even worse was the framing on that last one. Something about: Should the US support Israel making a preemptive strike on Iran? Creepy. Both candidates just mumbled something about Israel having the right to “defend itself” and then moved along.
So, okay. Our disastrous, dangerous, and expensive foreign policy isn’t worth talking about. Noted. Also absent from the conversation was anything about Covid and the economy-crippling policies that were enacted in response to that much over-hyped threat.
Nothing to see here, citizen? Move along?
Also completely ignored was the cadre of corporate interests that seem to have completely captured our government, and media — or do I repeat myself? Nothing about Big Pharma, or Big Agriculture, or the Teachers Unions, or the Military Industrial Complex, etc.
All these things were invisible, unmentioned. And therefore, unimportant?
Maybe it’s for the best. There’s a non-zero chance that one of the choices for president this cycle will take an axe to these parasites on our crippled republic. Maybe it’s best to sneak up on them.
I thought the cackling hyena won the Trump/Harris debate — mostly because she didn’t do any cackling and didn’t appear inebriated, as she usually does.
Both presidential candidates did very poorly, in my view. But since the expectations for Harris were so low (and for good reason, she often appears to be a literal idiot) she outperformed them.
Trump was as expected. Harris was better than expected. I think that translates into a “win” among undecideds — if there are such people out there who also watch debates.
But I thought Vance “won” this debate. He was able to deliver his talking points much more clearly and forcefully than Walz did. Both danced around the questions asked, as all “good” politicians do. But Vance was clearly more skilled at the art.
The moderators were on the side of the Democratic candidate, just as they were in the Trump/Harris debate. Vance did a much better job than Trump of overcoming the stacked deck, in my opinion.
So, there. Obligatory debate opinion posted: Mostly dumb. Not historic. The most important things weren’t mentioned much. CNN is a demonic blight upon all creation. Vance won vs. Walz.
Naturally,
Adam
> CNN is a demonic blight upon all creation.
I'm a big fan of the word "demonic," especially because automated spellcheckers always suggest changing my first name to it 🤣
Sounds like they had a mostly meme-level debate (I didn't watch it).