Tonight’s Debate

Before our regularly scheduled programming, let’s take a moment to say

HAPPY 100^th Birthday Jimmy Carter!

And now….

If you’ve never debated, it’s hard to understand what the experience is like. It’s very different to participate, as opposed to watching. (Kind of like the difference between knowing a Jeopardy answer when home, compared to being in competition.) In addition, the political debates we watch on TV are nothing like classical debating.

Tonight, two very different personalities will appear on the CBS stage, with no audience, for a debate moderated by Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan. Mics will not be muted, but the moderators may mute at their discretion. When it comes to fact checking, CBS is doing something unique. If you watch the debate on CBS, you’ll see a QR code on the screen. It will direct to the CBS website where a team of 20 CBS journalists will be  fact-checking in real time. This is interesting because of all the upheaval at CBS and its parent company, Paramount. It could be that they’re doing this in an effort to get better ratings: the QR codes won’t appear on any other outlet. But, the fact checking will be available on all the stations as soon as the debate ends, and in real time in various print outlets. So, meh, it’s a gimmick.

Albeit, likely the moderators won’t interrupt. This is sad to me because I’d like to see how viscious James Donald Bowman (his real name) would be to two women.

JD Vance (not his real name) has a lot of political debate experience. Plus, he’s a misogynist and a bully. Governor Tim Walz has done some debating, but never on this large a platform. Coach told the Vice President he was a bad debater back in August. Back around the time he used a teleprompter for the first time.

There are a number of rumblings from the left wing press that it will be tough for Governor Walz. He lacks the experience of his competition, they say. He won’t go for the jugular like the cretin across the stage from him, they say.  He’s too folksy and not masculine enough, they say.

I’m not so sure. I think we might see a real surprise. First off, playing the shillbilly in debate prep is Pete Buttigieg. The Secretary is brilliant, and likely nailed the nastiness, duplicity and lies of the Rethuglican. Couldn’t find a better stand-in.

Then, I like that expectations are low.

But the real thing is the difference between character and personality. When I was a little kid, my dad explained to me that we all have different personalities. We are different at work and school than we are at home, or with our friends. Personality can grow and change based on life experience. Character, however, dad taught me, is immutable. The core of a person doesn’t change over time, doesn’t change with experience. One is either fundamentally moral or they are not.

So while Coach has a personality that is amenable, helpful, earthy and decent, that doesn’t mean that he won’t rise to the occassion, and be able to be get his points across. Hopefully, the vice president has inculcated into him “I’m talking”.

On the issues, I have no doubt that Coach will hold his own: his beliefs, his positions, are baked in. This is also true of the contemptible and cringe-inducing clown who will be on the other side of the stage.

Still, I’ll be going through my debate superstitions. Years ago, I had a close friend who was an Eagles superfan, along with her sister and two brothers. They had special clothing they wore for Eagles games. They always served the same snacks. They had bobble heads that went on the TV in a certain order. They sat in the same positions, no matter whose living room they were watching from. While I know nothing about sports, I understood what they did. And I do the same for political debates. However, I did make some minor modifications between the Biden-Convicted Felon and Harris-Convicted Felon debates.¹

The debate is at 9 pm ET, on CBS and all the other old familiar places. It will run 90 minutes. Most outlets will have both a pre-game and a post-game show. I’ll be watching MSNBC like I always do. I can live without the CBS QR code, since I fact-check in real time automatically.

ENJOY!

1. I changed the snacks.