Some thoughts on the upcoming debate
And no, no one asked me
Bear with me, but here’s a thought regarding the hot-mic, not-mic controversy before the Presidential debate. The campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris may have taken a page from that wily political strategist — Br’er Rabbit.
In the (now considered racially inappropriate) movie “Song of the South,” Brother Rabbit pulls a fast one on Br’er Fox. Fox is angry with Rabbit and is trying to think of a way to punish him.
Br’er Rabbit has a request. Please, he says, don’t throw me in the briar patch. Fox falls for it and throws Rabbit in. And Rabbit laughs. He grew up in the patch, he tells Fox. This is where he wanted to be all along.
Could that be a parable for Team Kamala? After all, there was a Fox (News) that was all in on turning off the mics.
Kamala’s people huffed and griped impressively in microphone discussions. They have to be on at all times, they insisted. They even got a little political mileage out of it when ever-impulsive Donald Trump said he wouldn’t mind if the microphones were on.
That was a layup for the strategists, who feigned amazement that Trump’s team had so little trust in his temperament that they were cutting the power to keep him from looking like a rude, misogynistic jerk.
Which they, on the other hand, hoped he would.
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If you’ve paid a moment’s attention to this coming debate — and it will be both important and compelling — you know that Harris wanted the mics on to let Trump be Trump.
He’d interrupt, insult and lie, and she’d shut up and and knock him out with a few well-placed zingers.
Which she certainly could. Mike Pence is still wondering if it would be OK if he said something now.
But this is fine. Maybe better than fine.
First, there’s a problem with letting Trump behave like a lunatic so you can use him as a foil.
He’s a lunatic.
There’s no telling where he might go. Now that he’s announced that he thinks schools are keeping kids for a couple of nights, preforming transgender surgery and sending them home to their shocked parents, all bets are off.
You run the risk of buying into the theory that Trump doesn’t care as long as he’s leading the news. As clever and composed as Harris might be, a Trump rager could still be the next day’s headline.
That’s why this is is better.
First, let’s establish what Harris is here to do. It isn’t to show that Trump is a liar and a jerk. He’s given plenty of examples. If you don’t get it now, you’re just in denial.
She doesn’t have to throw insults back at Trump. The insults are just the “same old playbook” approach, and that, combined with let’s move ahead pitch, seems to be working.
What she needs to do — it says here — is get those undecided voters to look at her and say, “OK, I can see this. She could be president. And, by the way, I am so tired of this other guy.”
And she can do this. Her really unsuccessful presidential campaign got caught up in chasing the votes of the Bernie-crats, and ended up flirting with every progressive pipe dream.
She’s been much better now that she’s got the nomination. She’s got momentum, she looks confident and people were yearning for a younger, happier, more optimistic candidate.
With Trump’s megaphone off, she’ll be able to make that case.
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Now, can we predict that Trump will be an infuriating horse’s ass? I believe so. He’s convinced that cheap, personal attacks work.
So when that happens, it is time to deploy the “Pete Buttigieg pivot.”
Mayor Pete is killing it on talk shows, especially Fox News, with a formula. He takes a hostile question, addresses it quickly — “A woman’s right to choose has been a right in this country for 50 years” — then moves on to what he wants to talk about.
Harris has shown she can do that.
Finally, and I think this deserves more attention that it is getting, for all his bluster, Trump is not a good debater.
On Sarah Longwell’s recent Bulwark podcast, Semafor Washington bureau chief Benjy Sarlin reminds us that until the Joe Biden disaster, “Trump lost every debate,” and that includes those with Hillary Clinton.
Sarlin says that’s not just an opinion. Snap polls after debates had him losing and his national numbers went down after debates. He shouldn’t be favored in this one.
So this is a big moment, but it could be a very good moment for Harris. With the mic off, she’ll have the time to present herself to a voting population that is just getting to know her.
If she stays as positive, thoughtful and energetic as she’s been so far, she can make the case that she can do this job. If so, she wins this debate.
And, if he sees it slipping away, it might very well drive Trump to the point of saying something utterly ridiculous.
Then it is my hope that Harris will say, “I don’t know what he just said and I don’t think he does either.”
Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Twitter and Threads: @cwnevius
C.W.,
Your newsletter was right on point. I believe whenever Trump chooses not to answer the question or speaks in generalities (eg “I can end the Ukraine War in one day.” ), the moderator must quickly turn off his microphone. He often goes off script and veers off from the question asked.