Ready to Go

I don’t know how determinative last night’s debate will be, but I know one thing: Kamala Harris kicked Donald Trump’s withered old ass. For me, the debate was over half an hour in, when Trump declared “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats.” When Gampy starts yelling about Black people eating pets, it’s time to change his diaper and put him to bed. The poor guy just looked angry and bewildered up there, as if you could see him wondering, as he ludicrously claimed immigrants do, what country he’s in.

This was Trump at his manic, paranoid worst. When asked if he regretted any of his actions on January 6^th, he talked about pipelines. When confronted with his recent admissions that he lost the 2020 election “by a whisker,” he backpedaled and bloviated. The FBI, he declared at one point, is a fraud. When Harris stared him in the eye and said that world leaders find him disgraceful, he pulled out Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban as a character reference. He’s winning all of his court cases, he said, despite the fact that he’s due for criminal sentencing on November 26^th. Last night, all the old tricks stopped working; Trump was a magician whose cards kept falling out of his sleeve.

She’s 5’4” and made him look small.

Just as importantly, Harris won. She presented a clear case against Trump, but also presented an affirmative case for herself. It’s true that her answers lacked granularity, but I don’t think it mattered. For Harris, this debate was about two things: prosecuting the case against her opponent and addressing the naysayers who acted as if she could not stand on her own feet and answer difficult questions. She aced both tests. How does Trump now make the limp argument that Kamala is not very bright when she mopped the floor with him? If her IQ is low, what must his be?

But I think Harris won the debate in a more profound way. While both candidates ostensibly spoke to the American people, they were speaking to two different Americas. Harris spoke to those who could be persuaded. Trump appeared to only be speaking to Alex Jones. His lack of strategic thinking was evident from the moment the “dogs and cats” line fell from from his caky lips. The only people in America who even knew what the hell he was talking about are the terminally online and his racist MAGA base who take every outrageous lie about dark-skinned immigrants as the gospel.

By contrast, Harris was measured. She spoke of her values, her background, her desire to create an “Opportunity Economy.” She spoke forcefully about abortion, she flashed her foreign policy credentials, she was measured and calm. She seemed like she was having fun. She baited Trump on crowd size, and he took it. Harris controlled the narrative despite the fact that, time after time, the ABC moderators gave Trump additional time to speak. Rather than protesting, she let him keep yelling at the clouds, knowing that every word out of his mouth was likely to lose him additional votes. As I wrote last night, Trump’s finest moments of the debate were when he wasn’t talking.

Harris was not flawless. I thought she botched her Afghanistan response when David Muir asked if she had any regrets about the way American troops left Afghanistan. She should have begun by saying, “Of course I do. I regret it every single time an American service member is killed,” before continuing on in her response. Any president must have humility, especially in their role as Commander-in-Chief. Acknowledging the sacrifices of those American soldiers was an important opportunity for her, and she blew it. But it was one bad moment in a night filled with good ones for the Harris/Walz ticket.

Obviously, my vote was already secure for Harris, but this debate wasn’t for me. It was for suburban women outside of Philadelphia, it was for Black men whose support has been waning and closing the overall gender gap. It was about reaching those who may still be reached. It was about nibbling at the edges of the American voting public, trying to pick up a couple percentage points here and a couple there. Trump seemed hellbent on shedding support, and I suspect he did.

Again, I have no idea how determinative this debate will be. I suspect we will see a small bump in the polls for Harris/Walz which may or may not fade. But as the election looms ever-closer, it’s critical for each campaign to win the day. Last night, she won the entire week. It’s also entirely possible she won the election. Time and again, reporters have been questioning Harris’s readiness. About the debate, sure, but also, implicitly, about her preparedness to be president. Last night, after two hours of dominating the supposed alpha male in the room, she answered that question in the affirmative. Kamala Harris is ready.