Trump takes Harris’ bait

Following the debacle for Joe Biden at his debate against Donald Trump in June, there was enormous expectation ahead of the duel between the former president and the new Democratic candidate. Kamala Harris achieved in Philadelphia all that Biden was unable to achieve in Atlanta. She won in substance and in form. Her thorough preparation disarmed her rival’s more improvised performance. At the same time, she presented herself as a tool of generational change to turn the page on the extreme polarization that has contaminated American politics since the New York magnate showed up on the political scene. She dropped the slogans of her campaign at the right moments, while Trump was permanently playing on the defensive. All the Republicans could do in the end was blame the referees, mere moderators who simply dared to do their job by questioning at least the most outlandish lies delivered by the former president.

Winning such a momentous debate — perhaps the only one between the two, given that Trump has not expressed much desire to repeat it — does not guarantee winning the election in any way. The presidential election of November 5 will probably be decided by tens of thousands of votes in half a dozen key states. In these, undecided and independent voters will tip the scales. And if either of the two candidates planted arguments in the debate to garner their votes, it was the vice president.

Both Biden and Trump were unpopular candidates with the majority of the population from the start, but the incumbent president’s age and loss of mental acuity made the election largely a referendum on his ability. With Biden out of the picture, Democrats have long believed that one of the keys to winning was to make the election a referendum on Trump.

The Democrat passed her exam with flying colors, taking on the role of a prosecutor trying to convince the jury of the threat Trump poses to the future of the United States. She portrayed him as a self-obsessed egotist who cares nothing for the citizens. She beat him on the main issues — from immigration to abortion rights — and set traps to provoke him. Trump, who had disregarded his rival’s intelligence, fell into the traps, driven by his ego. Harris thus succeeded in making her rival show his worst side. The former president was angry, raised his voice and slipped into hyperbole. His claim that immigrants eat dogs, cats and other pets will go down in the history of American presidential debates as the best example of his crazy lies.

Trump's apocalyptic vision of the United States has many customers. The former president has shown himself to be almost invulnerable to sexual scandals, criminal charges and judicial convictions. A debate is not going to cause his faithful to abandon him, but the one in Philadelphia has not served to expand his electoral base or to change the positive inertia that favors Harris.

The Democrats continue to present Trump as the favorite. It is convenient for them to do so, in order to mobilize their own voters. The polls, pending the impact of the debate, give Harris a slight advantage in the popular vote so far, but a technical tie when one considers that the president is elected by the Electoral College. There are almost eight weeks of campaigning left. And everything is yet to be decided.

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