Bonus post-debate OTDI
- Jun 28, 2024
- 4 min read
June 28: On This Day In 2024
2:30 am Atlanta time. It's not our mission to analyze current events like this. Plenty of other news orgs do that. But, we can't resist offering a quick note on what we just finished witnessing (on DVR; got a late start)
They say your opinion of who "won" the Nixon-Kennedy debate depended on whether you saw it on TV or listened on the radio. I suspect a similar dynamic might be true here.
Conditions under which observers may have thought Trump won:
If they don't speak English. Trump obviously spoke faster and looked more forceful. And the optics of confidence go a long way towards making anything sound legit.
If they didn't do any mental fact checking of what the candidates were saying.
Conditions under which observers may have thought Biden won:
If they read a transcript rather than watched or listened. While Biden had his share of verbal stumbles, factually, analytically, and morally most of what he said was correct and superior.
If they could ignore anything which either candidate said which was a lie.
The tsunami of lies Trump spewed was appalling. We hereby beg a film editor to make a film of Trump's performance...but replace every lie with a Charlie Brown "wah wah" trombone. Or with silence. Under that circumstance, Joe Biden clearly crushed Donald Trump.
Why does Trump seem to sound better than his actual content? Four quick thoughts:
THE FRAMING: Trump has impressive sleight-of-hand skills. He directs your attention away from the question so you ignore his weakness. For example, he justified his stance on Roe by talking about a Virginia governor who wanted to kill babies after birth. Or Dems who want abortions in the 8th month. Have those things happened? Maybe! But, they are unrelated to the 99.9% of American couples who consider abortions. So by causing his audience to focus on that VA governor, he doesn't allow thoughts to shift to the women who are dying in 2024 because they couldn't get the abortion they need. Or the millions of people who simply want to be able to choose for themselves.
Another example: When asked about violating his oath of office on January 6, Trump answered by talking about Portland and Minneapolis (which, by the way, also occurred under his watch).
Also: He forcefully denied saying at an event that vets are "suckers and losers." He said 14 people who were there then didn't hear it. But, there were plenty of people there who did hear it. And even if he didn't say it that time, he was documented saying it on plenty of other occasions. Let's make the debate about THIS specific instance when I have plausible deniability, but let's ignore all those other times I don't.
THE LIES: Think about an early one Trump told. "Everyone" wanted Roe v Wade to disappear, he said. Legal scholars, and everyone! And he said it so forcefully! But you know it's a massive lie. So once you hear him say that, so convincingly, why would you believe anything else he said the rest of the night? All of those boasts which he made up sound impressive, but they're exactly as accurate as his nonsensical claim that everyone -- including you -- wanted Roe v Wade gone. Yet it's human nature to assume that what you hear from a guy on TV is correct, despite the 40,000+ times Trump has proven otherwise.
THE "PROJECTION": Trump is known for accusing others of the things he's bad at. I'm rubber, you're glue. If weak on an issue, just accuse your opponent of it too. So several times he called Biden the "worst president ever" when in fact it was Trump who earned that title (Biden was 14th best). He said Biden lies more than anyone, when in fact Trump is literally the biggest recorded liar in the history of human civilization. Trump said he's all for "pristine" clean water when in fact it was HIS administration which rolled back more than 100 regulations designed to protect our water and air. Trump said his economy was better, when most observers would flip that assessment. Etc.
THE SPEED: In the discussion of inflation, Trump said some food costs have "doubled, tripled, quadrupled." Huh? Of course that's nonsense. Maybe he didn't even mean to say it. But, he says so much so quickly that it's not possible, in real time, to call him on every stupid thing. So if Biden had said that, everyone would be smirking about it tomorrow; but because Trump said it so quickly, and confidently, it just glided away as if it never happened. Similar situation with his outlandish claim that we have become an "uncivilized country" due to his fantasy that millions of Mexicans are killing and raping Americans.
Quick summary: Does Biden seem older than one would like? Of course. But he has a talented team to assist him, unlike Trump who employed unprecedented numbers of top aides who had to leave due to their criminality or their corruption.
And one final thing Biden touched on: Donald Trump proclaimed that Russia should do "whatever they hell they want" to our NATO allies who don't have big enough defense budgets. Go ahead, spend an hour now...think about any president in your lifetime...how many of them have ever, proudly, said something so abominable? And Trump keeps claiming he's mentally sharp, and he refuses to walk back that statement. So which of those guys on stage, exactly, is the addled thinker?
Click here for today's regular OTDI discussing yet another of Trump's displays of racism.
Summary: Trump again demonstrates his racism