BTRTN: Trope-a-dope...Pence Evades Tough Questions, and Harris Wins the Debate
Born To Run The Numbers provides its assessment of a debate in which Mike Pence meticulously avoided answering every tough question put to him. If his goal was to change the trajectory of Trump's losing campaign, his game plan was woefully inadequate. Score this one a big win for Kamala Harris:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2020/10/btrtn-trope-dopepence-evades-tough.html
Excerpts:"Trump supporters no doubt urgently hoped that Mike Pence would be able to change the momentum and margin of preference in a race that has been remarkably stable for months. But there was nothing new in Pence’s game plan that was calculated to achieve such a goal. If anything, Pence trotted out the tired Trump tropes: revisionist history about COVID-19, attempted to affix ill-fitting labels on Biden and Harris, wildly aggrandizing isolated and relatively insignificant achievements of the Trump White House, and maintaining the steady Trump diet of exaggerating, deception, and outright deceit. Call it trope-a-dope: Pence brought nothing new last night. His only hope and his clear plan was to avoid tough questions and toss logs at Kamala Harris in the hope that she would trip. She did not. Score this one for Harris..."
"The Vice President... made a fateful decision four years ago that he would hitch his political career and moral compass to the whims of Donald Trump. Now Pence is like a Dad who refuses to admit he made a crucial wrong turn on the interstate at the very start of the vacation, and is left trying to convince his kids that the Grand Canyon is actually in Pennsylvania..."
"But perhaps we now know why Trump went full-on Attila-the-Hun against Biden last week: it was arguably less damaging for Trump to scream and interrupt in order to drown out the words rather than allow the audience to hear Biden make his case. Kamala Harris made the case last night, and the American people heard it. Kamala Harris emerged triumphant..."
