Debate Desperation Time For Democrats

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

You’ll have to believe me that I’m not trying to make a partisan statement when I say that everything the Democrats have done leading up to this election has been inauthentic, phony, and panic-stricken—from swapping out their candidate at the very last minute to flip-flopping on major issues like banning fracking, taxing tips, and EV mandates.

In some ways, I think the party would be doing better if they just took a breath and let Kamala Harris’s campaign unwind like any other normal campaign. But if Democrats are experts at one thing, it’s micromanaging things to death out of narcissistic adoration for their own faux intellect—hence we get genius ideas like price-fixing the economy, defunding the police, minting a trillion dollar coin, segregating college campuses to fight racism or trying to tell you what type of stove you can use at home.

Unfortunately for Democrats, the lack of finesse that comes with managing anything like an overly obsessive girlfriend sometimes starts to work against you. For example, Harris's campaign strategy to keep her out of the media for the first 40 days of being a candidate put abnormal scrutiny on her first television appearance, which turned out to have the intellectual horsepower of a Whoopie Cushion. The whole world watched Harris take pre-scripted and probably pre-approved questions from a Democrat-friendly anchor, on a Democrat-friendly network, and put on a masterclass of how not to effectively articulate herself, her policies, her position changes, or generally anything of substance.

debate desperation time for democrats

For Donald Trump’s first debate with Joe Biden, the Democratic Party went full “control freak” and made innumerable requests for rule changes like the debate was being hosted at some Eastern European Ritz-Carlton and they were Hunter Biden on a coke bender ordering room service. They requested chairs, notepads, water, excessive TV breaks, and muted microphones, ostensibly fearing Donald Trump’s razor-sharp tongue and uncanny ability to talk shit on the fly.

When they got their request, and Trump and Biden faced off with muted mics, Biden was left to his own devices and promptly self-immolated on national television, while Donald Trump stood by, watched, and shrugged his shoulders as if to say in a Sopranos-style New Jersey Italian accent, “Can you believe this fucking guy?”

debate desperation time for democrats

Now, after watching their precious Kamala Harris nearly implode during her training wheels, bumper bowling, CNN-sponsored softball-lobbing Fischer-Price™ My First Political Interview lovefest last week (which was rumored to have been edited down to 18 minutes from 41), Democrats are once again nervous that their candidate is unable to articulate themselves and their policies well enough to win a cordial debate on the merits.

So, the Democratic Party is now requesting another flip-flop (surprise!) and asking that microphones for the debate between Trump and Harris on September 10th remain live for the entire event. And in hilarious fashion, they’re accusing Trump of being scared to change the rules. The mic mute was a Democrat request a month ago and, as a reminder, Trump has been deftly maneuvering near-daily press conferences where he is assaulted by hostile reporters whose sole intention is to humiliate him, while at the same time Kamala Harris has still avoided any solo unscripted, consequential press conferences or interviews. The notion that Trump is rattled by the request, like the media has been parroting, is insulting to the intelligence of anyone with an IQ higher than AstroTurf™.

The Democratic strategy seems to be clear: they want Harris to have a hot mic so she can go “brat” on Trump and run her mouth in the absence of having any policy prescriptions that can drive the interest of voters. It’s the epitome of inauthenticity and phoniness. Much like when Hillary Clinton revealed the term “Trumped-up trickle-down economics” during a 2016 debate, the Democrats are going full cringe and trying to script an “unscripted” moment for her to be remembered by. They want her talking to Trump in the same condescending way she speaks to everyone, despite being devoid of substance in her words. Behold, Exhibit A:

And the Democrats ask for these things at their own peril: Donald Trump doesn’t need to rehearse off-the-cuff lines because he just says whatever the hell he wants to and is naturally hilarious, whether you like him or not. As other primary candidates learned in 2016, trying to “talk tough” back to Donald Trump has done nothing for any politician except backfire. When Jeb Bush told Trump he couldn’t insult his way to the Presidency, he…well, insulted his way to the Presidency.

Whether or not the debate rule change will happen remains to be seen. I personally think the Trump campaign should be done acquiescing to what the Harris campaign wants. I think a majority of independents know Donald Trump’s willingness to debate, and if Harris pulls out, it’s only going to make her look significantly worse. Trump said to Biden, “Anytime, anywhere, anyplace” — and then he followed through and thrashed Biden on his home turf of CNN.

“He can do it anytime he wants, including tonight,” Trump said 4 months ago:

With Trump’s addition of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to his team, his campaign has once again picked up support as Harris’s “honeymoon” has been ending. Not showing up to a debate will hurt Harris more than Trump, in my opinion.

And one thing is for sure: this constant obsession with trying to micromanage everything that their candidate does instead of just allowing them to speak on the issues that the party stands for comes off as desperate and pathetic.


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For the last few decades, Republicans have always been for limited government, lower taxes, states' rights, the Second Amendment, and cutting spending—their platform today resembles their platform anytime in recent history. The Democrats, on the other hand, have been the ones moving their goalposts — now encouraging war, censoring free speech, turning the government into a bloated bureaucracy and recklessly running up the deficit — when former Democrats like Bill Clinton returned the country to a surplus and had previously called for smaller government.

It’s safe to say that the Democratic platform has moved so far left that people who were once in the middle now can’t help but identify as conservative. Democrats must be finding that out by how often they are switching positions.

And with two months still until the election, the more Democrats try to hide in their shell and get ticky-tacky while trying to minimize damage and not actively campaign their candidate, the more it is going to look like they have no confidence in their candidate.

We already know, based on the massive amount of flip-flopping Kamala Harris has done, that Democrats have no confidence in their policies. When watching how much they are trying to micromanage Harris and how she is presented publicly, it begs the additional question of whether they genuinely even have any confidence in their candidate, either.

Now read:

debate desperation time for democrats

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Authored by Tyler Durden via ZeroHedge September 1st 2024