I don’t as a rule watch presidential debates [delete long complicated reasons or just go with “I get bored” or in last night’s case more like “I get disgusted”.]

I was making a Meijer run at 0-skunk-30 today (when there’s no traffic to speak of) when NPR played a clip of Biden speaking. OH MY GOD! IT’S ALL OVER! That was just about all I could think. But I also realized, this is a man with a COLD. A bad one. COVID or not, I dunno and who cares. He had lost his voice. Of course the media and various trolls jumped all over this. He is old and feeble, yada yada. I do wish we had a younger candidate. I almost bet Biden does too. But he doesn’t always sound feeble.

Back when I was a pirate (A pirate was a reading partner with elementary school children who were struggling to read and didn’t necessarily have academic support at home), there was a day when I was “sick”. I felt fine EXCEPT that I was constantly coughing, sneezing, and blowidg by doze. And I had no voice. I canceled my pirate that day. But you can’t cancel a presidential debate. Because that will make you look feeble.

Plus. You have to “debate” Trump. I put debate in quotes because Trump does not debate according to any rules except his own. I learned a new phrase, “gish gallop” today. I was not anywhere near the debate team in high school. I was TERRIFIED of speaking in public, arguing with people and all of what that stuff entails. Apparently gish gallop is an actual term? Right? It involves spewing out anything and everything you can, true or not, to bamboozle your opponent so they cannot figure out what to respond to. Something like that. Again, I am not a debater. This can discombobulate your opponent to the point of uh, uh, uh, stuttering. Even if you are NOT a life-long stutterer, like Biden is.

The thing is that Trump naturally gish gallops. He ALWAYS spews out all kinds of garbage, true or not. Mostly not. That is his modus operandi if I can grace a baboon with a Latin phrase. Mrs. Velde, my high school Latin teacher and Latvian concentration camp survivor may be cheering me on but I am sure she is not cheering for Trump, having lived through Nazi fascism in WWII.

Whatever went on in those debates, we CANNOT elect Trump again. Biden is NOT an idiot. He is a seasoned politician with a sense of humor who had a really bad day. We MUST elect him this time. After that, we can regroup. Hopefully with some younger candidates.

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