Vice President Kamala Harris made former President Donald Trump look defensive and even nutty during their first and only debate. She was sharp and strong, a trained prosecutor. He was complaining that Haitian immigrants were eating dogs.
What made Trump’s debate trouncing so surprising was VP Harris’ unexpectedly steady, mature performance. On the issue of reproductive rights, for example, he tried to hide behind a supposedly popular states’ rights argument. She ripped off his cover, talking about how women denied the procedure were “bleeding out” in parking lots, “You want to talk about, this is what people wanted?”
She was fiery and eloquent, commanding the debate stage, while he whined about grievance and immigrants. She spoke in full sentences. He was all over the place, as disorganized and petty as his SNL caricature.
If only Harris did as well with the few interviews she has given as she did with that debate. Whenever I see her interviewed one-on-one, I cannot help feeling she is the popular student shocked when the teacher has the temerity to ask a tough question. Example, “Do you have any plans of visiting the border,” famously asked NBC’s Lester Holt?” “We’ve been to the border,” answered Kamala defensively. “You haven’t been to the border,” Lester rebutted. “I haven’t been to Europe” was her infamously nonsensical reply.
If Vice President Harris wins on Nov. 5, it will not be because of her ad libbing or spontaneity when being interviewed. If she is defeated, it will be because she came up short against one of the smoothest spontaneous talkers in the business. On the other hand, he must be careful not to self-destruct. He must keep his cool and not be provoked as he was in the first debate, because as of this writing the election is still his to lose.
Next week we’ll probably be talking about the vice presidential debate, the undercard of the 2024 election. Candidates Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz going head-to-head. Both are products of the Midwest, but they couldn’t be more different. Vance reminds me of the magician pulling coins out of kids’ ears. Walz is your old gym teacher,
