Harris did better, technically, it seems to me. She dispelled a lot of meme-ry simply by speaking coherently, and hitting her talking points. She made Trump react to irrelevant issues. She lied without challenge.
Trump was not prepared, not technically. He said what he wanted to say. But he didn't have a two-hour rally to say it as he likes to do.
But, she attacked him personally. She spoke with disdain and condescension. The only genuine passion I saw was her loathing of him. Everyone watching could tell whose side the moderators were on.
None of that is a problem for her base. But anyone truly listening to the debate with any openness would find it all unseemly and unfair. She made an underdog of him.
Trump addressed issues, not personality. You got a sense that he really cares about these issues, and has a good sense of what he's going to do. (True, he didn't tell us.)
So if "winning" means gaining hearts and minds... did she win?
Ayaan is simply the smartest person writing on politics today. She is especially insightful on the US and UK. Her writing is so persuasive because she knows of what she speaks, not just academically, in terms of deep research, but experientially, in terms of what she has observed socially and politically, in her own life, in different challenging contexts, over many years. She is right that Trump, however, flawed, is our only choice. I only wish that he would read her stuff and listen to her. I love how she parsed the abortion issue. Nailed the smarmy party-line hack Tim Walz. So smart, both commonsensical and ethical.
Yes. I will vote for him as I did before. I truly believe DeSantis would make a better President because he actually understand leadership as being a servant of his constituents.
These ‘debates’ are not anything of the sort. The ‘moderators ‘ are bullies who hustle for the side they support and it was obvious which candidate that they were hustling for. The way the Democrat candidate was prepared for the ‘debate’ was to deliver set pieces. Absolutely sickening. President Trump is what he is and what you see is what you get. The man gets up every day knowing that the state, judiciary and MSM as well as sundry commentators hate him. Yet he perseveres.
Last time around supposedly ‘electing’ an unintelligent and cognitively declining man was deemed to be the ‘best way to fortify ‘ democracy. Now it seems electing an airhead who has done nothing for the last four years in any job she has been given except laugh or deliver word salads.
If anyone in the US was fooled by Harris and the glitz they deserve her but do the rest of the world?
Trumps policies are understood by those paying attention. He had plans when he lost (apparently) the last election that never were implemented. We are not losing any wars. Ukraine and Russia have both lost that war. This is Trumps point. Whether or not Russia slices off a bit of Ukraine doesn't mean they won anything considering the cost. But if we are going to talk about costs, how about not funding the Russians ourselves by allowing people to work around sanctions (including our European friends).
Ayaan needs a much bigger audience. She is one of the only commentators who does her research, isn’t ideologically captured by one side or the other, AND has real-world experience of the political game. Whenever I think about how loathsome I believe politicians to be, I need to remember that Ms. Hirsi Ali exists. Not everyone who has been in politics is a beast.
Great idea, let's all agree we we should not vote for people who are hellbent on destroying civilization. We should make our vote count and vote against them.
Trump was trying to quote the former governor of VIRGINIA, Ralph Northam, who was also an MD.
Trump may not intend the dissolution of Western civilisation or even well-intentioned policies that erode it, BUT he is sufficiently unstable both emotionally and cognitively and is so prone to being convinced by flattery that he is simply not up to the demands of high office.
Those dismissing tis opinion as TDS need, in my opinion, to argue that his display at the "debate" showed that I'm wrong. It didn't: the fact that, as Ayaan (who I greatly admire), points out, Harris was able to derail and distract him by baiting him; by simply challenging his egotism. His inability to call that out and get back to substantive argument demonstrated his essentially childish reaction in what should ave been a serious situation.
This seems to me to be a choice between unpredictable and irresponsible chaos in the White House and continuation of the accelerating dissolution that has been a feature of our society for most of my adult life as a result of the incompetence and wrong-headedness of successive administrations.
I see no winners here other than Putin, Xi and the middle eastern religious gangsters.
Do I overestimate the influence of Ayaan's friend or at least former friend, Sam Harris (I'd wish to be able to assume the former as she demonstrated great warmth toward and was reciprocated by Richard Dawkins, but Sam is so very prickly, willing to cancel former friends with whom he has opened even slight differences of opinion.)
It is very close to impossible to miss that Sam Harris has the most extreme case of Trump derangement syndrome one could possibly have. He seems totally willing to burn down every vestige of journalistic integrity if only it furthers his goal (which he so arrogantly thinks everyone should share - talk about elitist.) youtu.be/h1N5mWgYRAM?si=GV_Q9CuEditGUEoH&t=2250 "when the goal was to keep Trump out of office at that point."
Sam, admittedly, and thankfully had the integrity to call for an end to the lying about Trump in regards the "“Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, President Trump came to the defense of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, declaring that there were “very fine people on both sides.” Sam called this out as a lie in an brief essay of about 5 weeks ago, titled, "The Lie That Will Not Die". Unfortunately that integrity was short lived. In his thoughts on the debate, there was no calling her out on the use of this lie again.
He goes on to say, "The man is a moral lunatic. In truth, the moderators could have been much, much harder on him last night, and it would have been entirely justified. Just realize what we were looking at: The blizzard of lies aside, we watched a former president rave about our country being already “destroyed” and a coming nuclear war. Nothing about this was normal or remotely acceptable."
And yet, as Ayaan rightly portrayed in her essay, "The Abortion Election" there is nothing morally acceptable about the most extreme Democrat positions on Babies born alive after unsuccessful attempted abortions. It is insane.
Ayaan, any chance of talking sense to Sam? The first part of your re-cap of the debate is so much more balanced than Sam's.
"Since he doesn’t seem hellbent on destroying Western Civilization, he comfortably clears the subterranean bar set by the Democrats" That kind of neatly summarizes most of my many grievances. Others belong to the category "you must think I am an idiot' -- men can be women, Biden is in tip-top shape, Kamala is a moderate...
Thank you for making me feel much better about the debate. I find Trump's foibles extremely disappointing but without question support the Republican agenda over the Democrat one. It is very unfortunate that Trump cannot understand that he needs advisors for debate prep, because he throws away gains he could be making.
It is quite amazing how immigrants (legal) turned citizens see America and its strengths and weaknesses more clearly than all my friends (and children) born here. I agree with you that Trump did a pretty good job in his four years. But his gargantuan personality gets in the way often; he does not keep a cool head in these debates and interviews. There is too much "Me, Me, Me" and not enough America. You have offered a good reminder: he is a servant of America and not the other way around. Unfortunately this fact has been forgotten for some time, perhaps starting with Obama, perhaps before. Thanks for your clarity.
What does it mean to "win" a presidential debate?
Harris did better, technically, it seems to me. She dispelled a lot of meme-ry simply by speaking coherently, and hitting her talking points. She made Trump react to irrelevant issues. She lied without challenge.
Trump was not prepared, not technically. He said what he wanted to say. But he didn't have a two-hour rally to say it as he likes to do.
But, she attacked him personally. She spoke with disdain and condescension. The only genuine passion I saw was her loathing of him. Everyone watching could tell whose side the moderators were on.
None of that is a problem for her base. But anyone truly listening to the debate with any openness would find it all unseemly and unfair. She made an underdog of him.
Trump addressed issues, not personality. You got a sense that he really cares about these issues, and has a good sense of what he's going to do. (True, he didn't tell us.)
So if "winning" means gaining hearts and minds... did she win?
Ayaan is simply the smartest person writing on politics today. She is especially insightful on the US and UK. Her writing is so persuasive because she knows of what she speaks, not just academically, in terms of deep research, but experientially, in terms of what she has observed socially and politically, in her own life, in different challenging contexts, over many years. She is right that Trump, however, flawed, is our only choice. I only wish that he would read her stuff and listen to her. I love how she parsed the abortion issue. Nailed the smarmy party-line hack Tim Walz. So smart, both commonsensical and ethical.
If Ayaan advised Trump and he paid attention he would nail the election.
Yes. I will vote for him as I did before. I truly believe DeSantis would make a better President because he actually understand leadership as being a servant of his constituents.
These ‘debates’ are not anything of the sort. The ‘moderators ‘ are bullies who hustle for the side they support and it was obvious which candidate that they were hustling for. The way the Democrat candidate was prepared for the ‘debate’ was to deliver set pieces. Absolutely sickening. President Trump is what he is and what you see is what you get. The man gets up every day knowing that the state, judiciary and MSM as well as sundry commentators hate him. Yet he perseveres.
Last time around supposedly ‘electing’ an unintelligent and cognitively declining man was deemed to be the ‘best way to fortify ‘ democracy. Now it seems electing an airhead who has done nothing for the last four years in any job she has been given except laugh or deliver word salads.
If anyone in the US was fooled by Harris and the glitz they deserve her but do the rest of the world?
Trumps policies are understood by those paying attention. He had plans when he lost (apparently) the last election that never were implemented. We are not losing any wars. Ukraine and Russia have both lost that war. This is Trumps point. Whether or not Russia slices off a bit of Ukraine doesn't mean they won anything considering the cost. But if we are going to talk about costs, how about not funding the Russians ourselves by allowing people to work around sanctions (including our European friends).
Ayaan needs a much bigger audience. She is one of the only commentators who does her research, isn’t ideologically captured by one side or the other, AND has real-world experience of the political game. Whenever I think about how loathsome I believe politicians to be, I need to remember that Ms. Hirsi Ali exists. Not everyone who has been in politics is a beast.
Great idea, let's all agree we we should not vote for people who are hellbent on destroying civilization. We should make our vote count and vote against them.
Trump was trying to quote the former governor of VIRGINIA, Ralph Northam, who was also an MD.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/31/politics/ralph-northam-third-trimester-abortion/index.html
Trump may not intend the dissolution of Western civilisation or even well-intentioned policies that erode it, BUT he is sufficiently unstable both emotionally and cognitively and is so prone to being convinced by flattery that he is simply not up to the demands of high office.
Those dismissing tis opinion as TDS need, in my opinion, to argue that his display at the "debate" showed that I'm wrong. It didn't: the fact that, as Ayaan (who I greatly admire), points out, Harris was able to derail and distract him by baiting him; by simply challenging his egotism. His inability to call that out and get back to substantive argument demonstrated his essentially childish reaction in what should ave been a serious situation.
This seems to me to be a choice between unpredictable and irresponsible chaos in the White House and continuation of the accelerating dissolution that has been a feature of our society for most of my adult life as a result of the incompetence and wrong-headedness of successive administrations.
I see no winners here other than Putin, Xi and the middle eastern religious gangsters.
Do I overestimate the influence of Ayaan's friend or at least former friend, Sam Harris (I'd wish to be able to assume the former as she demonstrated great warmth toward and was reciprocated by Richard Dawkins, but Sam is so very prickly, willing to cancel former friends with whom he has opened even slight differences of opinion.)
It is very close to impossible to miss that Sam Harris has the most extreme case of Trump derangement syndrome one could possibly have. He seems totally willing to burn down every vestige of journalistic integrity if only it furthers his goal (which he so arrogantly thinks everyone should share - talk about elitist.) youtu.be/h1N5mWgYRAM?si=GV_Q9CuEditGUEoH&t=2250 "when the goal was to keep Trump out of office at that point."
Sam, admittedly, and thankfully had the integrity to call for an end to the lying about Trump in regards the "“Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, President Trump came to the defense of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, declaring that there were “very fine people on both sides.” Sam called this out as a lie in an brief essay of about 5 weeks ago, titled, "The Lie That Will Not Die". Unfortunately that integrity was short lived. In his thoughts on the debate, there was no calling her out on the use of this lie again.
He goes on to say, "The man is a moral lunatic. In truth, the moderators could have been much, much harder on him last night, and it would have been entirely justified. Just realize what we were looking at: The blizzard of lies aside, we watched a former president rave about our country being already “destroyed” and a coming nuclear war. Nothing about this was normal or remotely acceptable."
And yet, as Ayaan rightly portrayed in her essay, "The Abortion Election" there is nothing morally acceptable about the most extreme Democrat positions on Babies born alive after unsuccessful attempted abortions. It is insane.
Ayaan, any chance of talking sense to Sam? The first part of your re-cap of the debate is so much more balanced than Sam's.
"Since he doesn’t seem hellbent on destroying Western Civilization, he comfortably clears the subterranean bar set by the Democrats" That kind of neatly summarizes most of my many grievances. Others belong to the category "you must think I am an idiot' -- men can be women, Biden is in tip-top shape, Kamala is a moderate...
Thank you for making me feel much better about the debate. I find Trump's foibles extremely disappointing but without question support the Republican agenda over the Democrat one. It is very unfortunate that Trump cannot understand that he needs advisors for debate prep, because he throws away gains he could be making.
It is quite amazing how immigrants (legal) turned citizens see America and its strengths and weaknesses more clearly than all my friends (and children) born here. I agree with you that Trump did a pretty good job in his four years. But his gargantuan personality gets in the way often; he does not keep a cool head in these debates and interviews. There is too much "Me, Me, Me" and not enough America. You have offered a good reminder: he is a servant of America and not the other way around. Unfortunately this fact has been forgotten for some time, perhaps starting with Obama, perhaps before. Thanks for your clarity.