FINAL 2020 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Who won the debate? More importantly, will either candidate gain in the polls as a result of it? Normally, these debates are inconclusive. Most everyone concludes their favored candidate won. More importantly, the result rarely moves the needle in the polls significantly. This is especially true this year for two reasons. (1) Most analysts are of the opinion that there are very few undecideds left; and (2) roughly one-third of the voters have already cast their ballots through either early or mail-in voting.

To buttress my point, consider the following significantly different post-debate analyses, which should not surprise anyone who has been following politics. A post-debate CNN poll disclosed that Biden won the debate 53% – 39%. The NY Times published a story by Matthew Dowd that neither candidate hurt nor helped himself decisively, which helped Biden as the frontrunner. On the other hand, on Fox News almost all the commentators opined that Trump won.

In my opinion, Kristen Welker did a credible job as moderator. She made sure both candidates adhered to the debate guidelines; she allowed reasonably brief follow-up comments while sticking to a tight schedule; and she did not exhibit any overt bias. I gave Biden points for avoiding any major gaffes, non-sequiturs or faux pas. I gave Trump points for his calm, reasonable tone, for letting Biden talk, and for avoiding the excessive interruptions that turn off a lot of people.

That said, enough of the opinions. Let’s look at some facts. Opinions are unverifiable. I have mine; you have yours. Whose is correct? It depends. Facts, however, are verifiable. They are pesky little things that don’t go away and cannot be legitimately discredited.

1. Biden outright lied and/or contradicted several previous statements he had made. These are not opinions. They are facts that have been verified by emails, videotapes, and other witnesses. See below.
2. For example, emails have surfaced that clearly establish the “pay to play” schemes of the Biden Family with respect to the Chinese government and oligarchs from Ukraine, Russia and other countries. Joe said he “didn’t take one penny” from them, but the FBI and various news outlets are in possession of various emails that refer to Hunter and his cohorts setting aside “10 for the Big Man.’ ” It is clear that “10” means $10 million, and “The Big Man” is Joe.
3. In addition to the emails Joe’s role in these schemes has been corroborated by Wall Street Journal reporter Kimberly Strassel and by Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter’s who provided firsthand accounts of these nefarious dealings. This is potentially very damaging to Joe’s credibility as most of America was unaware of the scope of this corruption before the debate. How deeply is Joe in the pocket of the Chinese and these oligarchs? What kind of quid pro quo has he agreed to? Has he put their interests ahead of America’s? We don’t know yet. Hopefully, we will find out before the election.
4. Furthermore, most of us have seen the tape of Joe, as VP, bragging about threatening to withhold foreign aid to Ukraine unless its President fired the prosecutor who was investigating Hunter, which he did.
5. Joe stated that the matter has been investigated fully by various US investigative entities, which have concluded that “nothing was wrong.” This is another lie. Moreover, he stated “five former heads of the CIA” had come to the same conclusion. Another lie. Naturally, he didn’t provide their names. In actuality, the Department of Justice, Congress, the FBI, and perhaps some enterprising investigating reporters are actively investigating it, and the matter is far from settled. Sooner or later Joe and his supporters will have to answer questions about this entire affair. Perhaps, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.
6. With respect to COVID Biden continued to repeat the same lies. He repeated his criticism that Mr. Trump delayed taking decisive action to protect Americans. In point of fact, Mr. Trump acted quickly and decisively in January to ban travel from China and Europe to the US. Furthermore, he established a task force headed up by Mike Pence to deal with the pandemic. As some may have forgotten, in January the Dems were focused on trying to impeach the President, and they were not paying attention to the far bigger threat of COVID. In addition, there was much disinformation regarding COVID that emanated from China and the WHO. Nobody, not even our medical personnel, had reliable information regarding the disease, its origins and how to treat it. There are various tweets and videotape accounts of Biden and other Dems criticizing Mr. Trump’s early actions as “xenophobic, racist, and fear mongering.” They are a matter of record for all to see. Now, Biden is second-guessing with the benefit of hindsight.
7. Joe lied about the effects of his much-ballyhooed tax plan. He has stated he would “repeal the Trump tax cuts,” and that it would only impact those families with income in excess of $400,000. Another lie. The fact of the matter is that the Trump tax cuts include many tax credits and deductions that benefit middle class and working class families. Again Biden’s comments and tax plan are a matter of record and easily verifiable.
8. Biden accused Mr. Trump of building cages to imprison undocumented children. Another lie. Photo evidence shows the cages were built in 2014 under, you guessed it, the Obama-Biden Administration.
9. There were strong philosophical differences with respect to healthcare. Biden advocated a “public option,” whereas Mr. Trump favored private enterprise. It should be noted that “public option” is code for socialized medicine, which has had problems in countries in which it has been tried. Biden said under Obamacare no one lost their health coverage. Another lie. In point of fact, some 4.7 million people did. Another pesky little fact. Remember Obama asserting that “if you like your doctor you can keep him; if you like your healthcare plan you can keep it?” That also proved to be false.
10. All of the above is damaging to Biden, but, in my opinion, the most damaging moment came when under pressure from Mr. Trump Biden admitted he wants to ban fossil fuels (oil and gas) and end fracking. Prior to that moment, Biden had given inconsistent statements on the matter depending on his audience. But, his admission of the obvious before a national television audience severely damaged his prospects in several states, including PA, OH, TX and MI. He virtually told residents of those states that he would take away their livelihood and destroy their states’ economies. I don’t see how he can win any of those states now.
11. As all candidates do, Biden kept making promises of what he would do as president. For the most part, they sounded good, but like all liberal dogma they were too expensive and wouldn’t work. Mr. Trump repeatedly and effectively asked, rhetorically, why didn’t he do all these things in the previous 47 years when he was VP and Senator?

CONCLUSION

I think the foregoing illustrates how Mr. Trump won the debate. Certainly, residents of the states in which oil, gas and fracking is important must sit up, take notice, and, perhaps, reassess their voting preference.

There were many other issues I could have mentioned, but I think I have bored you enough already. I tried to limit my comments to issues that are supported by facts, not opinion, because we all have opinions,, and we all are adamantly convinced that ours are correct and other guy’s are not.

Everyone agrees that this is a very important election, and the consequences will be far-reaching. Therefore, it is incumbent upon you to vote.