Joe Biden's lead in the RCP polling average inched up to 7.9%. Meanwhile, the total number of early votes is now over 49 million. By noon today that number will probably surpass the record set in 2016 of 51 million.
A debate happened last night. I got home a little after the start and turned it on to hear some of the discussion of the pandemic. First reaction: Trump was mostly not talking out of turn, Second: I've heard all this before.
Honestly it baffles me that these debate moderators simply ask the same questions over again, which allows the candidates to hit their marks, deploy their zingers, and change the subject whenever they feel like it. Compared to the first debate this one was a little more, what, adult maybe? I saw one journalistic assessment that said it was "substantive." Well if that's what ranks as substance these days, we're living in very insubstantial times!
I turned it off, did some stuff, and restlessly came back to the TV a little later. Watched for a while, but not to the end. There were moments that Biden lied in the ordinary political way (exaggerations, elisions, and selectively blurring of the focus on inconvenient facts), while Trump lied as only he could. "I've done more for blacks than any president in history with the possible exception of Lincoln!" That "possible" is priceless!
There were other moments when I thought Biden rose above mere talking points and sounded real. One of those occasions was during the discussion of immigration.
I would prefer three debates that did not simply each cover the same ground. If I was the debate commission, I'd schedule three 1-hour debates, each on a single broad subject area: you could do economic and fiscal policy in one, social issues (civil rights, abortion, etc.) in another, and maybe the third could be foreign policy and military engagements around the world. You might have a panel of moderators who were expert in these subjects (perhaps one with a liberal viewpoint and another with a conservative one, plus the head moderator to ride herd on the candidates . . . perhaps a whip would come in handy). These debates would be an intentional deep dive, forcing the candidates to demonstrate their chops, their command of facts and ability to enunciate a policy rationale.
As it is, nobody learns anything from these debates. There is a remarkable staccato quality about it all, like an exchange of machine gun fire, with each candidate hurrying to one scripted talking-point or another. Although I have great sympathy for these journalists who are chosen to moderate, they mostly fail to nudge the candidates out of the ankle-deep water of pre-scripted zingers and tried-and-true talking points that the voters have by now heard a thousand times. Post-debate polls always show that partisans on each side believe their candidate won the debate hands down.
One more point: Joe Biden has read the electorate well. He is betting that Americans want a return to decency, and that is the upshot of much of his campaign now. In last night's debate, when given the chance at the very end to paint a picture of what they would do in the next four years, Trump quickly pivoted to attacking his opponent once again. But Joe turned to his theme of unity and decency. It's as if Trump has no strategy, no higher vision, than recriminations and spite. Trump is a broken record.
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