The most important debate was already won by Donald Trump

because Joe Biden dropped out, which created a bigger problem for Donald Trump

On January 20, 1969, a little known Republican Congressman from Houston, Texas was at Andrews AFB to bid farewell to the outgoing President, Lyndon Johnson.

The Congressman was well connected politically and had you seen him standing behind Richard Nixon as he was being sworn in as the 37th Presidentt of the United States, you’d have been unsurprised.

But nope, there he is, George H.W. Bush, the future 41st President of the United States thanking the 36th President of the United States for his service to the nation. Notably, that sort of decency and obeisance would doom Bush the Elder to a single term as President.

Decency, morality, ego, and contemptuousness are the political meat of one-termers. Just ask them. Jimmy Carter embued the first two and Donald Trump the latter two.

Joe Biden is a quirky combination of decency and ego, specifically a lack thereof; and it explains how quickly he segued from political candidate to the best single term President supplanting James K Polk, famous in song¹ and story.

In the end, the fiasco of a debate, owing largely to faux journalists, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, not doing any semblence of their jobs and Corporate Media’s obsession with Biden’s age ended with his dropping out of the 2024 race. It was never a case of Biden’s age impeding him from doing his job, incredibly well, in the 1278 days preceding his withdrawal or anyone in Corporate America having issues with CEOs over 80² —and some of them really suck at their jobs. It was the Corporate Media buying into Trump’s narrative while ignoring the fact that Donald Trump’s age and mental fitness were and are much bigger issues.

And here we are 6 days away from the second Presidential debate with Donald Trump facing his worst enemy — a smart Black woman.

I have some level of experience here — I was married to a smart Black woman for four years.

First of all, Black women don’t debate. They just don’t. Lines are drawn and arguments are made, but a debate assumes acquiesence to societal rules that people who have been historically displaced refuse to play. From Lucy Parsons to Shirley Chisholm to Letitia James and Fani Willis, the political game has been akin to a fixed boxing match. Either I knock you out or you knock me out, because “losing by decision” is the system winning.

Second, it is Donald Trump’s lack of knowledge about the Black Experience in America that will doom him. Trump, bizarrely, believes he has been the best President for Black people since Abraham Lincoln³ ignoring the fact that during his lifetime, Harry Truman integrated the US military, Eisenhower signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act — with future President and then Senator John F. Kennedy being an important part of its passage, and LBJ did much of the heavy lifting on multiple pieces of Civil Rights legislation. I could easily go on with the records of what Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Biden have done for Black Americans, but trust me on this — of the 30 Presidents since Lincoln, Donald Trump doesn’t make the top 25.

Black experience? Donald Trump has never been denied housing, a job, a bank loan, or anything else due to his race or sex. He’s never seen himself denigrated, dismissed, or disregarded because of who he is or who his parents are. Fairly certain that Kamala Harris has experienced things a thousand times worse than I ever have (and I was called vile names, saw hotel and dinner reservations get “lost”, and endured several DWB traffic stops while I was married to my second wife).

The only difference between white Leftists and every Black woman I’ve ever encountered in my life is that what pisses us off is the realism of what it means to be Black woman every day. And that experience comes down to either “sucking it up” or calling racists for what they are — racists.

Charlottesville, his business practices, his social media comments, and the NABJ interview will all come into play in the September 10th debate. On the last one, it wasn’t a good look for him.

It’s noteworthy how virtually every journalist in that room simply ignored Trump’s caustic comments, backhanded commentary, and not so subtle sexism and racism.

And the upcoming debate will likely feature this from Kamala Harris — “Same old tired playbook.”⁴ — repeatedly.

Third, the Big Lie and the Politics of Delegitimization have created the current problem Donald Trump faces. Election denialism denied Joe Biden a significant degree of political legitimacy. The Politics of Delegitimization reduced Kamala Harris to a non-entity, politically speaking. The dearth of interviews, articles, and talk show appearances for the first female Vice President, first Vice President of Color, first Asian-American Vice President, and the first Vice President since John Calhoun⁵ to have both parents born outside of the United States/British America speaks for itself.⁶

For those complaining about Kamala Harris not doing interviews since her ascension to being the 2024 Democratic Party nominee for President (a falsehood) — it’s worth asking:

“You’ve had 1300 days since she was elected Vice-President and now you’re freaking out because you’re unprepared to take her on. How exactly is your political incompetence her problem?”

1. 176 years, quite a run, but here’s the song.

2. https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/sectors/sp500-major-ceos-are-older-than-biden-and-trump-results-arent-great/

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/05/trumps-claim-that-hes-done-more-blacks-than-any-president-since-lincoln/

4. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/30/harris-not-taking-trump-bait/

5. Both George Clinton (who served as Thomas Jefferson’s VP) and John Calhoun (who was VP under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson) both had parents who emigrated from Ireland to America.

6. ICYMI (and most people, especially the media, have) — Kamala Harris is a First Generation American and her success is “The American Dream”.