Kamala Won The Debate. But Did She "Bait" Trump? An Examination Of The Key Moment.

Who let the dogs out?

Grok image of “Kamala Harris and Donald Trump with a scared dog in the park.” The dog doesn’t really look very scared, though. Even he seems not to believe he’s in danger.

Everyone who follows politics was excited for last night’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.¹

According to CNN’s snap poll, 50% of people who were going to watch expected Kamala to win, and 50% expected Trump to win. They’d never debated before. They’d apparently never even met. Trump has a terrible track record of general election debates against Democrats, but in June, he was the victor of what was probably the most influential general election presidential debate in US history. So, you know, maybe that was the beginning of something.

Another factor was at play in the expectation game: conservatives have been calling Kamala a moron for years. Her refusal to do interviews has led many of them to become more confident about that impression.

Biden was also criticized for not doing interviews. Democrats and liberal pundits dismissed those concerns. Then, he got up on the debate stage in June and instantly proved the concerns right. Would the same happen with Kamala?

On the other side of the aisle, you had the Democrats. They expected Trump to be some version of the guy we have seen for a decade. This is easy to say because it’s true. He’s an unchanging known quantity. People who find him funny find him funny. People who believe humor is a tool of the fascists hear only dog whistles. People who relate to the way he talks get him. Everyone else thinks he rambles like he has Alzheimer’s. You see his racism, or you don’t. Etc, etc., forever and ever, and because the race is tied after ten years of this, a touchstone fact about Trump for Democrats is that he is Teflon. He gets away with stuff politically, criminally, and financially.

How does one hold these two beliefs—that Trump is an evil moron AND teflon? By blaming the institutions that are supposed to hold him accountable. So Democrats expected Trump to perform poorly at the debate and for it not to matter because the media is a bunch of cowards and the voters are largely ignorant racist shitheads.

They set the table for this over the weekend with a fresh round of complaints at the NYT and Nate Silver for doing bad coverage and making bad polls. They were all ready to get outraged about a million things Trump said and then to be outraged again about whose fault it is that it didn’t change anything.

So, then, last night, we got these two crazy kids together, and it was time to dance. It was a very fun debate, indeed! For Democrats.

Kamala Won, Democrats Had Fun

Republicans did not see the humor in our national trip to the dog (eating) park.