Show Time

“…You'll be swell! You'll be great! Gonna’ have the whole world on a plate! Starting here, starting now, honey, everything's coming up roses…” Everything’s Coming up Roses. Jule Styne & Stephen Sondheim. CNN is hyping Thursday night’s debate like it’s a rematch of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryant matching off in the Scopes Monkey Trial. It’s basic marketing on the part of the network because viewer ratings translate into advertising dollars and prestige points. Unless I miss my guess, it’ll be a ho-hum affair. They’ve put kill switches on the microphones to keep Trump from interrupting and shouting over people, but he’ll find a way to be disruptive, it’s his schtick. A debate isn’t Trump’s ideal format, he’s far better out on the stump, revving up a crowd, saying anything that comes to mind. Biden has been in politics all his adult life; he’s an experienced debater and his advisors will have him prepared. He’ll treat Trump with a dismissive shake of the head, and the roll of the eyes. For both candidates it’s just theatre, and short of somebody barfing into the microphone, it won’t affect the outcome of the election one iota, because voter’s minds are already made up. I may be proven wrong, but the polls will continue to put too much emphasis on data collected from MAGA and progressive democrats and spend their time guessing about that big swath in the middle that doesn’t respond to pollsters. You can be your own pollster, next time you’re out for a walk or a drive, look at the bumper stickers and yard signs, you’ll see they’re a 50/50 split. Conversely, every car and yard without a sign or a sticker, is in that silent 60% the pollsters can’t accurately read. Depending on how the questions are worded Thursday night and how aggressive the CNN moderator wants to be, there are three questions that could liven up the debate-one for Biden, two for Trump. For Biden, if asked about the southern border and he parrots his recent actions, the logical follow up question would be, why didn’t you do this four years ago? For Trump, it’s abortion and aid to Ukraine, he can’t hide behind either if pressed…It would be fun to see some action, but more than likely it’ll be as Shakespeare wrote, “A poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing… “