Joe Biden speaks on November 11, 2016. Photo by USHUD.
There was no drooling in his shoes, no utterly loosing the thread of a conversation, so Joe Biden evidently exceeded expectations.
Who Won?
According to Roger Kimball in Spectator.US, on balance, the President did.
By “won” Mr. Kimball means, how did the candidates impress the people watching them?
The Main Issues
- Law and Order. Trump won that one hands down. He’s for it. Biden would not utter the phrase
- Race. I think Trump won that as well. No sentient person approves of Black Lives Matter, antifa or critical race theory. The President could have articulated the case against that racist nonsense better than he did, but I think he beat sleepy Joe to the finish line on that issue
- Climate Nonsense. I think Trump won there as well. I wish he had said — what is the truth — that ‘the science’ shows little evidence of anthropogenic contributions to climate change or global warming. He should have said — and I quote the great Robert Bryce — that what the world needs is cheap, abundant energy, period, full stop, end of discussion
- The Economy. Trump’s record is brilliant. He did not explain that as fully as he might have done.
- COVID. I believe that (Trump) handled the pandemic very well. His early decision to end flights from China was critical. His mobilization of the business community to produce medical materiel was extraordinary. And his emergency economic interventions were stunningly effective. He did not summarize all that as forcefully as he might have done
Lots of Fibs
For his part, Joe Biden told a lot of fibs, charges Mr. Kimball.
(Biden) brought back the old saw about the President saying there were ‘good people on both sides’ after the Charlottesville protest. Biden omitted to note that the second part of his sentence where he said “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists.”
Joe also reprised the recent canard that the President referred to American soldiers buried in France as “losers” and “suckers.”
No he didn’t.
Biden lost out on the Green New Deal — he’s for it — law and order — he’s against it — and the whole discussion about race and energy.
Trump would have done himself a favor by letting Biden do more to hang himself with his own words. Still, I believe that Trump won. Curiously, although I believe that Chris Wallace does not have much time for Trump, Wallace’s most probing questions were to Biden. What would his commitment to following elements of the Green New Deal actually cost?
Joe had no answer.
