Harris Wins The September 10th Debate But She Is Not Home Yet!

By Donald A. Collins | 13 September 2024
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

As Americans watched the September 10th ABC Presidential Debate one was shocked at the calm lethal efficiency of Harris, often laughing or smiling at the inanity of his responses, dispatched Trump.

I collected a couple of the many news accounts in the Washington Post (see Balz column below), NY Times and the Wall Street Journal which you can read here:

Harris and Trump Bet on Their Own Sharply Contrasting Views of America

Trump Debate Performance Frustrates Republicans

Dan Balz’s 9/11/24 Washington Post piece warns the debate may not give Harris victory on November 5th!

Here are some quotes:

But while their campaigns focus on voter turnout, the two candidates will wage an extended version of what Americans saw on the debate stage Tuesday night. Trump has proven resilient politically despite years of lies, an attempt to subvert the 2020 election and his undisciplined persona. Harris, new to the presidential campaign trail and less well known, must continue to demonstrate her durability.

But Harris has another mission, and it was on display Tuesday night, which is to continue to heighten fears about another Trump presidency Democratic strategists say the more the former president is in the spotlight, the better Harris’s chances

Trump did nothing to offer voters a new portrait. This was the same Trump whom voters have seen for nearly nine years — an attack politician, one who thrives on personal grievance. He is as well defined as any politician can be, for those who love him and those who loathe him. The act is old — and to about half the country, it is disqualifying. Yet with nearly all of the other half in his corner, it has been enough to keep the race as close as it is.

It was Harris who perhaps surprised people on Tuesday. Criticized for failing to do many interviews, questioned about her ability to hold her own in unscripted moments, she made an impression on those who watched, especially women, according to one Democratic strategist who observed a dial group of voters. In the weeks ahead, Harris’s support among women could become the decisive factor in the outcome of the election.

The turning point in the debate came when the issue of abortion was raised. Harris had deflected an opening question about whether Americans are better off today than they were four years ago — the classic question posed by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 debate with then-incumbent Jimmy Carter. Instead of answering directly, she ducked the answer by laying out policies she said would help the middle class.

But when the moderators — David Muir and Linsey Davis — turned to abortion, she found her voice and apparent newfound confidence. From that moment on, she was in command. Trump, despite repeated attempts to unnerve her, failed to do so.

Read Balz in full here.

It is clear that the race is still razor close and Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz know that and will be running at full pace to tell swing voters what they came to offer in a new era after the negativism of the Trump years. Trump’s saying why didn’t Harris do that in Biden and Harris’s term must be a key point she answers. Possible answer: they did a great job with strengthening NATO, saving Ukraine, building a strong economy, starting competitive drug pricing, and making available substantial environmental funding, and would have made the immigration situation stabilized if Trump had not blocked the bipartisan immigration bill so Trump could use that issue as a campaign bludgeon!

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk” and “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”.

DEBATE REPLAY: VP Harris and former President Trump l ABC News Presidential Debate

Lawmakers react to presidential debate

Donald Trump says no more Kamala Harris debates | BBC News

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