Showmanship vs. Policy

Tonight – at the exact same time – both Joe Biden and Donald Trump held town-hall style programs.  If you’re thinking “hey, wasn’t there supposed to be a debate with that format?” the answer was yes, but then the first debate sucked dead ferret’s eggs and then Trump got the COVID and things actually went DOWNHILL from there.

Trump nixed a virtual town hall debate, so the debate commission said “Fine, debate cancelled,” and then ABC said they’d still do the town hall but with only Joe Biden, and then Trump got all huffy and the very next thing you know, NBC is hosting a town hall with Trump at the very same time.  Quel scandale!

Oh, this is the same NBC that Trump called “the worst” and “I’m doing this town hall with Concast, con, con. It’s a con job. C-O-N, not C-O-M. Concast! (NBC’s parent)” and “the fake news media is corrupt, okay? It’s corrupt. We’ve shown it so many times…” and “I’m being set up tonight.”  All of those comments made just hours before his “free hour of television.”  That’s Trump gratitude for ya’.

Why is he even doing this?  For one thing, it’s not like he plans to answer any of the questions offered to him with actual policy statements.  Trump (and by extension, the GOP) has no policy statements.  Seriously, none whatsoever.  He has a dream list on his website (my favorite being “return to normal”) but he’s had a zillion chances to announce his alternative to ObamaCare, and… 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗 [crickets].  He still has no plan to deal with the coronavirus.  And so on.  And even if he DID have policy, he still wouldn’t answer questions that he doesn’t want to answer.  He never does. 

Oh, and there’s that pesky lying thing.

So why IS he doing it?  Somewhere in that muddled brain of his is the thought that ratings is what drives it all.  Sure, it’s a leftover thought from his Apprentice days, but he really thinks that if HE gets better ratings than Biden, HE deserves to be re-elected, voters be damned (so if someone wants to watch baseball playoffs, they’re SOL).  And he thinks he’ll get better ratings not because of his policies, but because of his showmanship. 

This might actually be true if he was a dynamic, charismatic, trustworthy leader.  Being none of those, it has a snowball’s chance in hell.  So how’d it go?  As NBC's Savannah Guthrie (the town hall moderator) said, “You're the president, you're not like someone's crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever."  Yeah, definitely not dynamic, charismatic, nor trustworthy.

When the debates raged on, social media had a field day.  You no doubt have your favorites, but here’s mine:

Joe Biden over here giving thoughtful informed answers and having productive discussions with citizens and the moderator. Good thing there isn’t a fucking bile-filled circus going on at the same time distracting the country from moving forward even a little.  @hankgreen

Joe Biden listing off the pay-fors of his tax plan, answering a heartfelt question about why young black voters should choose him.  Donald Trump saying he doesn’t know for a fact that there isn’t a satanic pedophile cult running the government.  @Rob_Flaherty 

And after it was all over…well, no surprises.  Here’s the Trump campaign statement: "President Trump soundly defeated NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate. President Trump masterfully handled Guthrie’s attacks and interacted warmly and effectively with the voters in the room."  So to Trump, it was actually another contest (which he naturally won).  

Sure.

Meanwhile, nearly an hour AFTER the town hall was over and the cameras had been turned off, Joe Biden was STILL answering questions from the audience.

I think that says it all.