ECM was right about prosecutors being effective debaters. I think some effort should be taken by the Democratic party to encourage prosecutors to go into politics, the House, the Senate, run for Governor so that in twenty years, we have a crop of possible Presidential candidates who are former prosecutors.
When was the last time America had a presidential candidate who was so good at debating? Abraham Lincoln? Although, even there, Lincoln was best at preparing a speech and was relatively weak at responding to unexpected questions. And it is ironic, that in that era, presidential candidates did not debate, causing one of his strong points to be wasted. The Lincoln / Douglass debates occurred while they were running for the Senate in 1858, not for the presidency in 1860.
Dewey might have been quite good, but irrelevant since in 1944 and 1948, presidential candidates still did not debate each other. It was still considered 'Unpresidential'.
Another point. In the first Kennedy Lincoln debate, one reason Kennedy did better is he wore a suit that contrasted with the background. Nixon wore a grey suit that blended in with the background, at least on black and white TV, which the vast majority of TVs were. Last night, Trump worn a blue suit that blended in with the background while Harris black suit contrasted quite well with the background. A minor advantage.
Also, I think sitting on the right side, the stronger side in movies and TV gave a better advantage over having the last word, which Trump chose to do.
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Finally, a word about President Biden. Yes, he did do the right thing in stepping down. But he was wise enough to do so after the Republican convention, making the attacks against Biden during the Republican convention a waste of time. Even more importantly, he threw all his support behind Harris. People forget but there was a lot of calls to not only have Biden step down but to have Harris bypassed as well. This would have been a disaster. It also helped that all the possible candidates, like Newsom and a host of others, put aside their ambitions and threw their support behind Harris. That is amazing and was critical for Harris to get the nomination effortless without Democrats shooting each other down.
In June of 2024, Joseph Biden was not the candidate we needed. But he was the president we needed. We are damm lucky to have had such a great president during this critical time. He didn't pick a running mate in 2020 from a swing state but the candidate he felt was best as a possible future president. He somehow got the country to recover from the mess Trump left us in, in time for the next election. He had the judgement to step down and the judgement to throw all his weight behind Harris, when others thought he should do differently. Not so sharp on stage anymore, and never was, but with a Lincoln like judgment on Presidential decisions, even into his eighties.
Harris is like a rising rocket right now. Biden is like the first stage of the Saturn V rocket which never gets to reach orbit and will fall back to Earth but which enables other parts of the rocket to go into orbit and later reach the moon.
Otto von Bismarck once said, "there is providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America". I am not a religious man but it is amazing that when America gets into really bad trouble, and really bad trouble always comes from within, America is always able to find a Lincoln, or a Biden, or a Harris, to bail us out. I am still an agnostic but I am an agnostic who wonders.
