Tonight’s Presidential Debate is unique in the history of presidential debates.
It is the first ever presidential debate where two people who have served as president are debating each other.
It is also the first presidential debate that has taken place before either candidate has been offically nominated as their party’s candidate (although both have already won sufficient delegates to secure said nominations).
It is also the first presidential debate featuring the two candidates of the respective parties where the moderators will have the ability to mute the microphones of the candidates at will.
That last point is going to be the most interesting thing we see. It’s generally assumed that the CNN moderators who are about as in the tank for Joe Biden as you can get will be censoring Trump, keeping him from either going on or countering if Biden says something completely off, but the real interesting thing to watch for will be if they use their mute buttons to cut off Joe Biden if he starts to ramble or carry himself like the doddering old fool that he is.
That’s going to be the real tightrope walk for Tapper and Bash, their goal is to hinder Trump’s ability to get his message out to those few watching who have not already made up their minds, without being so obvious as to garner him sympathy. Their second priority is to carry Joe Biden without making it clear to the audience that they are doing so. That might actually be the harder task of the night
That’s really the only mystery here. I suspect there are actually very few undecided voters in this election. Americans have lived through the Trump years and the Biden years so they have an actual basis for comparison that has not existed on election day since the election of 1892 when Grover Cleveland faced Benjamin Harrison. People know what the choice is and I suspect most have already made it.
Furthermore the Trump people are going to vote for Trump come hell or high water and the Trump haters would vote for a wooden plank if it ran against Donald Trump which pretty much is the case as I suspect very few people think Biden is in charge of anything and when the debate is over as long as Joe Biden doesn’t drop dead or throw up all over himself everyone in the media will declare (at least publicly) that Biden won the debate with a strong performance.
That’s why I don’t think this debate really matters much except for the people actually running this administration who will use it to decide if they are better off keeping Joe Biden or dumping him.
One of the basic themes of the Donald Trump Campaign is summed up neatly in a simple meme that’s been around for a bit:
Given the events of the last four to eight years this is something that’s easily believable to anyone who has paid attention, but to those who:
Have not paid attention
Distrust or dislike Trump due to style
Hate Trump with an irrational passion
The very idea that they (the left/deep state) are after us is either:
Ignored or dismissed as rhetoric
Disbelieved outright
Considered irrelevant because their hatred of Trump justifies any action to stop him.
And that’s why Donald Trump has agreed to debate terms that no other sane man would tolerate.
You see Trump knows many of these people for what they are. For an entire lifetime they feted him, celebrated him, worked to get close to him and begged him for money. It wasn’t until he became a political threat to the left that he suddenly became a racist, or a Russian plant or anything else they started to call him (You might recall the Morning Joe crowd who are among the most vitriolic Trump haters out there celebrated and promoted him during the 2016 GOP primaries when they were convinced that if nominated he would lose and lose big). To function in big Democrat cities he had to work with a lot of them and was the sober man at every party where they were drinking and talking.
He also knows regular Americans not just from the campaign trail, but from getting to know the builders and workers who not only put up his buildings but worked in them. He knows many of them understand basic fairness and decency.
On Thursday a lot of those people who haven’t been paying attention, or distrust what he says or hate him irrationally will be watching and it’s unlike any other presidential debate that has ever existed because it’s the first time in the history of a presidential debate where BOTH CANDIDATES HAVE ALREADY BEEN PRESIDENT.
It’s not going to be about policy, all those watching know the policies that each administration pursued, it won’t even be about the economy, all those watching know what the economy is and what it was. Even a 15 year old is old enough to understand the difference between how things were five years ago and how they are now. No the question up to be answered is who can lead and who has to be led and who will give them a fair shake.
That why Trump’s campaign lady went on CNN and that’s why CNN had to censor her when she said what everyone who has paid attention knew to be true:
Good start to debate week on CNN with @kleavittnh being kicked off the air for pointing out Jake Tapper’s history of clear bias against Donald Trump. Welcome to the being kicked off CNN live broadcasts club, Karoline! pic.twitter.com/haUCYU9kpD
She did so to establish what the reality is going to be, because while a lot of people haven’t been paying attention to the election they have heard of this:
The left destroyed Nick Sandmann’s life because he smiled at a protestor
So when Trump goes before two CNN moderators who attack him and defer to Biden for 90 minutes in front of the watching world he’s counting on all those who have not been paying attention, those who disbelieve his claim of unequal treatment and those who are nevertrump at all costs to see it for what it is.
The people who weren’t paying attention will see the reality, perhaps for the first time
The people who distrust Trump will recognize what is happening and believe (much like the Jews of America are having their eyes opened to the left lately
The “never trump at all cost” crowd will recognize it point, laugh and cheer because their hatred overrides all but perhaps even a few of them will find it a bridge too far.
They’re going to make his case for him. He’s counting on it.
I mentioned yesterday that my sons were taking me to the Tycoon Arcade in Manchester yesterday, I’ll have a video and write-up later in the week but I want to mention something on the side.
We all figured we needed confession and fortunately there was a Catholic Church Ste Marie’s right across the street a very French Canadian Parish.
Not only is the church incredibly beautiful, not only does the parish have 24-7 adoration and a parish school but when we got there we had to wait because there was a long line for confession including a nun properly dressed as a Nun.
Catholic Pro-tip. As a general rule if you see a line for confession you know that’s a parish to consider joining no matter what the AP thinks.
Despite the RIP Doctor who stuff out there I decided I was going to check out the first three new episodes. I’ll review them properly later but I wanted to mention a common theme that all of them suffered from. You could call it Colin Baker disease.
When the 6th Doctor was first introduced the showrunner at the time decided they wanted to make him disagreeable and then eventually win the audience over. They managed the first but not the so much the second to the point where they ended up firing him.
Of course this was the same issue with Whitaker but they didn’t dare fire the first woman Doctor and it goes without saying they won’t do that to the first black gay doctor.
Looking at the three episodes as a group it’s almost as if they really haven’t figured out who or what this Doctor is, only that he is
The inferior to his companion
Part of an agenda
This in my opinion has severely weakened the stories I’ve seen, there are flashes of both Davies and Moffat but you get the feeling they’re there strictly to try to bail out the merchandizing sales because Disney has already provided the cash.
On the bright side my oldest who actually watched the Whitaker years informs me that all three episodes are superior to anything from the Chibnall era. Talk about damning with faint praise.
Speaking of people from British TV John Cleese tweeted out something unintentionally funny yesterday
40% of America hasn't noticed this
But some of them may soon notice the rapid decay of his mental faculties
Now it goes without saying that Cleese is not only highly intelligent but one of the great comic genius in the history of mankind but I have to say that the joke is on him here.
I understand that he REALLY dislikes President Donald Trump but as this is an election between him and President Joe Biden but if your goal is to convince people that Mr. Biden is the better choice making an argument comparing either their mental facilities or physical facilities for that matter just might not be the wisest course of action.
This isn’t a parliamentary system where the party can just choose another head or perhaps he thinks the Democrats will plan on having someone else at the top of their ticket who is younger by the time election day rolls around.
Speaking of Dumb Takes I see Laura Loomer decided to attack Dana Loesch for having supported Ron DeSantis in the primaries and suggesting that she should not be a speaker at conservative events over it.
It’s one thing to think Trump was a superior choice to DeSantis, people I respect like Don Surber had that opinion and there are credible arguments that could be made in that direction. It’s another to label anyone who didn’t have Trump has their first choice as “dick riders” particularly someone like Loesch who was fighting the good fight for conservative causes before Loomer was out of school.
Trump was always my 2nd choice for President among the candidates and I’m happy to support him this time around not because of folks like Loomer but despite them.
This girl has future as a cat lady written all over her.
Finally while I don’t think much of Miss Loomer I do agree that she was improperly banned from twitter and my tastes aside deserved to be restored to the site.
That being said can anyone explain why Robert Stacy McCain is still banned?
Stacy McCain was along with Milo one of the first conservatives banned from the site for the crime of quoting liberals in their own words. Pretty much what libs of Tic Tock Does only without videos. I theorized at the time that he was the test case to see if it could be done without trouble and sure enough the wave of conservative banning followed before the last election.
With the coming of the age of Musk many of those who were banned have been restored but for reasons still unknown Robert Stacy McCain who was doing shoe leather reporting before Laura Loomer was born still has not.
This has cost Stacy money and exposure which prevents him from raising the funds needed to go on the road as he has in the past. Of course with a bunch of grandchildren and being of retirement age perhaps life at home is more comfortable, but seriously, wouldn’t the coverage of both the Biden & Trump campaigns along with key congressional races be a whole lot better with Stacy on the ground in the districts giving an eye witness account of what is going on?
I think it would be but the only way that happens is with a full tip jar and the best way for that to happen is to restore him to his rightful place on Twitter/X
If you only have a minute and you want to know, in a nutshell, what the Netflix adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s novel from 1998, A Man in Full, is all about, here it is: The lead character, Atlanta businessman Charlie Croker, is Donald Trump–orange hair and all. Then throw in elements of the George Floyd and Rodney King stories and add an even more shocking ending than the one in Boogie Nights.
Earlier this month, Netflix started streaming the six-episode series, which stars Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane.
Wolfe, who is my favorite writer, after a two-decade career in journalism, made a smooth transition into fiction with his first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities. It encapsulates the boom years of 1980s–along with the mayhem of pre-Rudy Giuliani New York City. Three years later, the film version was released. It is godawful, starting with the miscasting of Tom Hanks in the lead role as “the Master of the Universe,” Sylvester McCoy. After I suffered through the movie, I said to myself, Vanities is a mini-series not a two-hour movie.
I had hopes, misguided ones it turns out, that A Man in Full would be better, because it is a mini-series. Adding to my anticipation was Netflix streaming last year the insightful documentary, Radical Wolfe.
As A Man in Full begins, Charlie Croker (Daniels) is celebrating his 60th birthday at a party with Shania Twain entertaining his friends, family, and business associates. Two of those guests are executives from PlannersBanc, his principal lender, Raymond Peepgrass (Tom Pelphrey) and Harry Zale (Bill Camp). While it appears that Croker is an Atlanta version of a Master of the Universe, he’s broke–Charlie owes PlannersBanc $600 million. He’s overextended with other lenders too. Peepgrass and Zale want to carve up Croker’s empire, starting with his quail hunting plantation and his corporate jet. A rescue is offered by the mayor of Atlanta, Wes Jordan (William Jackson Harper), who is campaigning for reelection, and Croker’s attorney, Roger White (Aml Ameen). But to save his neck, Croker will have to betray his former Georgia Tech football teammate, Norman Bagovitch (John Lacy), who is running against Jordan.
Bagovitch–wait for it–decries the status of the white male in his campaign. Jordan is Black.
David E. Kelley wrote the script, and he should be ashamed. No serious candidate for public office would campaign on such bigoted idiocy. And in Atlanta?!? Why does Kelley insult his audience?
Oh yeah, he wants to demonize Trump. Orange Croker Bad. Oops, I mean Orange Man Bad.
Joyce Newman (Lucy Liu) is an alleged victim of a sexual assault from Bagovitch. In the book, well, let’s just say there is fear of a race riot because of the racial angle of that alleged rape.
Wolfe, brilliantly in my opinion, centered much of his plot on racial contrast and conflict, but also on Croker being an anachronism. The series is set in 2024, but events in the book take place a quarter of a century earlier. Croker, nicknamed the 60 Minute Man because he starred on offense and defense for Georgia Tech, played a lead role for a national championship Yellowjackets team, at a time when major college sports teams in the South were not integrated. Croker came of age just as the civil rights protests were picking up steam, and when Jim Crow laws were still in force in Georgia and other southern states. The world changed, but Croker, not so much. Sure, of course Croker in the novel knew blacks had equal rights, but they still belonged– and I’m not endorsing his sentiment–“in their place.”
Kelley, and the directors, eliminates that angle by turning Croker into Trump. He even does away with Charlie’s redemption in Wolfe’s novel.
There’s even a climate change dig included in the series. I mean, why not?
As Croker, Daniels, who is usually very good, is an embarrassment, beginning with his overwrought Foghorn Leghorn southern accent and his Trump-sized abdominal paunch. On the other hand, Diane Lane, as Charlie’s first wife, shines. I had the pleasure of seeing her at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth a decade ago.
Wolfe’s novel is over 700 pages long, so it’s understandable that some storylines are condensed.
For instance, Conrad Hensley in the book is the child of worthless white hippies who, in spite of them, still manages to develop a strong moral compass. He works for Croker Foods in the East Bay area of California Hensley’s life, like Charlie’s, collapses. He ends up on the wrong side of the law after he violently tries to retrieve his towed car. By the way, anyone who has had his car towed and is forced to pay usurious fees to retrieve it, will sympathize with Hensley. In the series Hensley (Jan Michael Hill) is Black, and well, I already mentioned Rodney King and George Floyd.
The subplot with Peepgrass and Martha Croker remains, with the Boogie Nights twist added. If you crave more details on that, click on this Daily Mail link.
Oh, the Crokers’ son, Wally (Evan Roe), sure looks a lot like Barron Trump in the series.
Astonishingly, Trump-hating Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis doesn’t appear here. Maybe she was on a cruise with Nathan Wade during filming.
I guess I needed to suffer for some forgotten sins, because I endured all six episodes of A Man in Full. Of the other Netflix series that I punished myself with, in full, only The Pentaverate and Vikings: Valhalla were worse.
On the flipside, the cinematography for A Man in Full is sharp–Atlanta never looked so good. The soundtrack, compiled by Craig DeLeon, is spectacular, it’s as splendid as the best work of T-Bone Burnett. Keep an eye on DeLeon.
Wolfe, who died in 2018, didn’t like The Bonfire of the Vanities film. I don’t think he’d care for the series based on A Man in Full either.
I hated it.
A Man in Full is currently streaming on Netflix. It is rated TV-MA for violence, foul language, sex, and nudity.
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