Grading the Trump-Harris debate — the great, the dangerous and the bizarre 

On Tuesday we could have seen crucial occasion within the 2024 election. One thing much more earthshaking than President Biden dropping out of the race: Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris.  

Oh, and there was also a debate. 

Swift’s endorsement, which included the meme-able line, “I imagine we are able to accomplish a lot extra on this nation if we’re led by calm and never chaos,” featured an image of her holding a cat and was signed “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Woman.”

The importance depends upon how a lot she is prepared to interact with the marketing campaign. If she actually will get concerned, it might be a game-changer in the case of motivating youthful voters. However even simply the naked endorsement continues to be gold, since she has 95 million Twitter followers, 80 million Fb followers and 283 million Instagram followers. Maybe childless cat girls are the brand new soccer moms.

It’s a good guess that Taylor Swift’s endorsement will earn much more votes for Kamala Harris than choosing JD Vance as his vice president did for Donald Trump. 

After which there was the talk. Given the character of American politics, it most likely didn’t change plenty of minds, however it might need modified some necessary ones in swing states that will likely be gained or misplaced by a couple of thousand votes. So, how did every candidate carry out?

Donald Trump as soon as mentioned that he may shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. That sentiment has proven largely correct, and the previous president didn’t do something to shake that base of help on Tuesday evening. However that’s a low bar. Trump didn’t accomplish way more than that.

His trademark humor was largely lacking on the talk stage. His finest line of the evening was accusing Harris of stealing his insurance policies and quipping that he was going to ship her a MAGA hat. 

On a number of events, Trump ran circles round himself. At one level, when challenged about how he would substitute Obamacare, he merely claimed he had “the concepts of a plan.” This was one in all Harris’s missed alternatives; she may have reminded Trump that he started engaged on “the ideas of a plan” 9 years in the past, when he was positive it might be straightforward to interchange Obamacare by doing deals with hospitals. 

The low level of the talk for Trump needed to be his declare that immigrants had been eating household pets in Springfield. Blended in with a dialogue of whether or not folks leave his rallies early, this was a weird moment, even for those who occur to be a information junkie and knew what he was speaking about.

When you didn’t, like most likely 90 p.c of the viewers, you might need thought this had one thing to do with an episode of “The Simpsons.” Because it turned out, he was speaking about Springfield, Ohio, and, because the moderator identified, the police in Springfield haven’t received any complaints that that is really occurring. 

Trump’s finest and most repeated assault on Tuesday was to problem the vice chairman concerning the Biden report and to color the entire selections made throughout the present administration as her personal. That’s tough for Harris to counter with out showing disloyal. Nonetheless, it does make you need to ask Trump how a lot credit score he provides his vice chairman, Mike Pence, for the successes of his personal administration.

Total, though Trump didn’t rise to the second, his efficiency was considerably higher than at his typical rally speeches. Apparently, Trump didn’t price his personal efficiency very extremely, although, as he made an nearly remarkable personal appearance in the spin room after the occasion.

I give him a C-minus. 

Harris, nonetheless comparatively undefined, got here into the talk with one thing to show. For a lot of voters, this was their first take a look at the vice chairman in motion; she needed to come throughout as somebody they might think about because the commander-in-chief. She actually completed that. 

Harris drove residence two messages. The primary was to distinction Trump’s give attention to himself along with her give attention to voters. One among her best lines was, “As a prosecutor, I by no means requested a sufferer or a witness are you a Republican or a Democrat. The one factor I ever requested them, are you OK? And that is the type of president we’d like proper now. Somebody who cares about you and isn’t placing themselves first.”

The second was a sunny optimism, which stood in sharp distinction to Trump’s doom and gloom. She didn’t fairly say it’s morning in America, however it was shut. 

Essentially the most spectacular factor about her efficiency — or maybe the least spectacular factor about his — was Harris’s skill to bait Trump. Whether or not it was her dig concerning the Wharton college, the Central Park 5 or the dimensions of crowds at his rallies, Trump fell into trap after trap. At instances, it was nearly painful to look at. And though none of this can matter to Trump’s dedicated voters, it was outstanding nonetheless.

If I’ve one criticism, it’s that Harris may have been extra aggressive in following up on a few of Trump’s solutions. Trump spoke greater than five minutes longer than she did. However this can be a minor quibble. Harris will get an A-minus. 

There was no breakthrough second or knockout punch. The race will proceed as trench warfare in a handful of swing states. However this debate will do loads to agency up Harris’s current help and should even persuade some undecideds to return in from the chilly. Definitely, Trump did nothing right here to spice up his personal help. 

The Harris marketing campaign is already proposing a second debate. Keep tuned.

Chris Truax is an appellate legal professional who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s major marketing campaign in 2008.