Pensees

  Just a few thoughts on the VP debate. 1.  Civilized, compared to the Presidential debate. 2.  This will NOT move the needle for either Trump or Biden. 3.  Debates have outlived their usefulness.  Please make it stop. 4.  Winner:  the fly. 5.  Winner:  Moderator Susan Page. 6.  Toss up: the candidates. 7.  Loser:  Donald J. Trump.  He wasn't on the stage, but shortly after it was over, he pulled out of the next Presidential Debate.  This tied with sabotaging the stimulus negotiations for his worst decisions of the campaign.  He's underwater in the polls, and there's only a few weeks left before the election.  He desperately needs to change the dynamic, and the debates are an opportunity for him to do exactly that.  But no.  He's not going to debate Biden.   The Biden campaign should send him a thank you note.

 PENSEE #12 Donald Trump once claimed he could  "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody"  and not "lose any voters."  Given their demonstrated loyalty, one could agree with Trump on this. That said, though,  there are signs that there are indeed voters leaking out of the Trump camp.    It certainly isn't a rush to the exits, but it's enough to question his claim that even if he's a murderer, he won't lose a vote from his loyalists. According to one recent poll,  up to 6% of Trump voters in 2016 will not be back in 2020 .  That's not huge, but it's somewhat surprising that the number of disappearing Trump voters is even measurable.  As one voter put it,  “What changed my mind? 120,000 deaths,” Considering how close the 2016 election was, even 6% of his base is a problem for a Trump second term.  I'm not predicting that Biden will win, nor am I predicting that a Trump loss would be solely due to defectors.  T...