Cleveland: It Wasn't a Debate

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

I had intended to spend this morning writing about last night's presidential "debate" in Cleveland, an event that, as it turned out, was neither "presidential" nor a "debate."    I did spend an hour-and-a-half of my life last night listening to the rolling train wreck of an encounter between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but in the end I decided that it had been a cringe-worthy affair and something best forgotten as quickly as possible.

Well, maybe I should share a couple of insights regarding the fiasco - just for the record.

The moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, threw down the ground rules at the outset, but it was quickly apparent that Wallace did not have the necessary stuff within himself to keep the candidates - and particularly Donald Trump - in line.   Trump hurled personal insults at Biden and his family - saying Joe Biden wasn't smart and that his son, Hunter, was a drug addict who had profited off of his father's position in the government - and Trump continually shouted over Biden's responses to questions - and he even drowned out a lot of what the moderator tried to interject into the discussion.

A couple of telling points during the evening occurred when Donald Trump refused to say whether he would refrain from declaring victory until the election results were officially announced - and when he began making his well-rehearsed complaints regarding what he sees as massive irregularities with ballots. Biden moved to assure people that the election would produce a winner and that winner would be sworn in as president.    Trump continued with his posture that he would deem anything less that a win for himself as suspect.

Joe Biden renounced violence at protests, while Donald Trump passed on an opportunity to condemn white supremacists.  When asked directly about the armed instigators known as the "Proud Boys," and would he tell them to stand back, Trump responded with "I would tell them to stand back and stand by," a provocative statement that supposedly was incorporated into the group's public relations strategy soon after the words left Trump's mouth.

I listened to the debate over National Public Radio in a darkened room with a pleasant ambience, and still I found it to be a vile, gut-wrenching experience.  I doubt that I will waste my time listening to the next two.  If there were any good points left to be made, Donald Trump wouldn't allow them to be heard anyway.

Debates are for the benefit of undecided voters, and I am not one of those - in fact, I have already voted.  Trump's strategy last night was apparently to rattle Biden and make him get angry and overreact.  And Biden did flare a couple of times - once when he referred to Trump as a "clown," and a couple of times when he told him to shut up.  But Trump's plan to rattle Biden into some sort of emotional collapse failed overall because Joe managed to basically stay on-point and not get flustered or side-tracked.

In my opinion Joe Biden won last night's debate, not because of anything exceptional that he did -  but from the fact that Trump abandoned the processs early on and began wallowing in craziness.  Chris Wallace, who seemed at times to be trying valiantly to rein-in Trump, eventually ceded control of the monkey house to Trump and, with that abdication of authority, became the big loser of the evening.  Donald Trump, for his part, screamed through the bars and flung his feces in all directions.

What happened last night in Cleveland wasn't a debate, and shame on us for pretending that it was.  If Americans feel a need for more of what we were subjected to last night, let them watch "professional" wrestling.    At least it's more honest.