The Veeps

 Waiting for the debate, listening to the pundits, I learned that the theory going on was that neither side was going to go in for the big kill.  This was a little disappointing, but you know, you never know.  

As it came on I was fiddling with something on my computer and only half listening to the tv and I was a little distracted, and suddenly I realized, hey they have begun.  I guess I was expecting a shitstorm like the first presidential and this was more like a tea party.  They were further apart and they didn't look at each other as much, and the white shadow interrupted a bit, and almost always kept talking past his time, but not nearly to the extent that Trump did.  Much less name-calling and emotion, much more well behaved.

Nothing new there, my mind wandered a bit and something began to occur to me.  Among the roster of candidates Biden had been far from my favorite.  He was kind of cornpone, you know, sentimental, low brow, the kind of guy whose heart goes pitter pat when old glory is paraded by,  Not the kind of guy a sophisticate such as myself favors.  

But the thing is he is that kind of guy.  Trump, who always has like two dozen flags lined up on the podium. is not that kind of guy.  He doesn't like heroes who are captured and thinks our fallen are a bunch of suckers, but he pretends to love the flag and the bible and all that jazz, and he gets away with that with his hard core 35%.

You know I am cynical and I mostly pay attention to the mechanics of the fight.  I kind of ignore what's in the hearts of the candidates, but during this debate it struck me.

The white shadow was mostly a surrogate, defending the Trump record at every turn, mostly with the terms that Trump himself uses but expressed much more politely.  He's so stiff and loyal that I always suspect he has a dagger concealed in his toga.  A lot of republicans, especially in the last week, would love to dump the Trump and run the unstained white shadow.  He only has to indicate with a slight nod, that he would except the crown and they would jump to put it on his head.  But thus far he has not done so.

Kamala was subdued.  I had expected that she would slice and dice the shadow, but she folksy, smiling mostly in contrast to the shadow's frown, and keeping her sharp tongue in its scabbard.

As a partisan of course I thought the dems won the debates but had to agree with the pundits in the postgame roundup that it most likely did not move the needle.

And that is good enough.  We have a large lead at this point with less than four weeks to go a tie is almost as good as a win.

Question for the day.  Is it the steriods, or is it just Trump being his loveable self?