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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

‘Tis harmful when the baser nature comes
Between the cross and fell incensèd factors
Of mighty opposites. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2

The Time: “The controversy will begin at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday and is anticipated to final 90 minutes.”

The Place: “The Nationwide Structure Middle in Philadelphia will take heart stage within the race for the White Home Tuesday because it hosts the primary and solely scheduled presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.” And the way ridiculous that there’s just one debate. Little question the loser will need a rematch, however the winner will refuse to grant one.[1]

The Guidelines: “ABC’s guidelines, first shared with the campaigns final month, largely mirror the format of CNN’s presidential debate in June between Trump and President Joe Biden, throughout which the candidates’ microphones have been muted as their opponent spoke. It was a rule that the Biden marketing campaign had insisted on however one thing the Harris marketing campaign had sought to vary after she grew to become a presidential candidate. The community’s guidelines additionally state that there can be no viewers, the candidates is not going to be permitted to have written notes, no workers can go to them in the course of the two business breaks and the candidates can’t ask questions of each other.” And: “ABC stated solely the moderators can be permitted to ask questions. Every candidate can be allotted two minutes to reply every query with a two-minute rebuttal, plus a further minute for a follow-up, clarification or response.” Humorous how the mike rule now favors Trump, despite the fact that the Biden camp insisted on it.

Apparently, each candidates have the same weak point: Kamala, for phrase salad (actually, “Exhausted in regards to the division” isn’t English), and Trump, for what I name “jazzy riffing” (and what some specialists, maybe tendentiously, name “tangentiality“). Trump’s riffing, nevertheless, has endurance; he can stick with it for ninety minutes, simply. About Kamala’s endurance, I’m not so certain.

Earlier than the Biden vs. Trump debate, I wrote:

What I can be looking forward to — moreover, I admit it, ready for Biden to slide a cog or an “Oh, the humanity!” second from Trump, plus each debaters duking it out, blow-by-blow, ZOMG the spectacle!! — can be how the candidates attraction, or have been managed or chivvied into interesting, to the small numbers of persuadable voters within the swing states (and from their appeals, maybe to reverse engineer the longer term course of the race). For some motive, I’ve been watching Moneyball clips recently; that is an particularly good one: “Individuals who run ball golf equipment, they assume by way of shopping for gamers. Your aim shouldn’t be to purchase gamers, your aim ought to be to purchase wins. And with the intention to purchase wins, you should purchase runs.” These small numbers of persuadable voters are the runs.

In fact, Biden truly did slip a cog, majorly, so the controversy appeared somewhat pointless after that, and I by no means noticed what I stated I might look ahead to. Maybe this time!

Nevertheless, if I needed to think about what one may name a decisive second — Trump having achieved two, one with Clinton, and one with Biden, knocking the latter out of the race — I can see two potentialities.

First, Kamala. If Kamala comes out with a wonderfully crafted and confidently delivered assertion for the prosecution, utilizing the phrase “felon” loads, Trump would want to knock it down, exhausting (the latest revelation that Bragg’s PR dude thinks that Bragg’s case was a crock ought to assist right here. Fani’s, too). She’ll want some help from the moderators to do that early, nevertheless.

Second, Trump. As we all know, Trump has a genius for sensing weak point in others. He has but to show this with Kamala. My pet concept of that case: Trump spokesperson Alvarez just lately stated that “the American individuals know ‘who Trump is,’ however ‘what we don’t know is Kamala Harris,” however I might take that additional: The case may be made that Kamala doesn’t know who she is. It’s nice to be Indian, Black, and a mixed-race individual of colour. What’s not nice is to shift, chameleon-like, from the primary, to the second, to the third, relying on the marketing campaign. There’s additionally Kamala’s shifts on coverage from 2019 to at the moment. Certainly Medicare for All and fracking are large enough points that one may take a thought of stand upon them that lasted greater than three years? After which there’s the plagiarism situation: If Kamala actually is aware of what she stands for, why on earth plagiarize Biden’s platform? After which there’s the oh-so-authentic collard greens and spices factor. What’s up with that? I don’t know the right way to cut back that to a debate zinger, but when I needed to choose Kamala’s weak point, that’s what it will be.

Oh, and volatility is the central function of this election, regardless of all efforts to maintain issues secure. It follows that the controversy can be risky, because the final one was.

P.S. I’m wondering if Melania releasing a clip on the try and assassinate Trump can be a subject within the debate. That ought to be attention-grabbing!

NOTES

[1] Extra on the Nationwide Structure Middle from WikiPedia:

The Nationwide Structure Middle is a non-profit establishment that’s dedicated to the examine of the Structure of the USA. Situated on the Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the middle is an interactive museum which serves as a nationwide city corridor, internet hosting authorities leaders, journalists, students, and celebrities who interact in public discussions, together with Structure-related occasions and presidential debates.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 17, 2000, the 213th anniversary of the signing of the Structure.

Frankly, I discover the entire notion a little bit unsettling. If the Structure have been really a residing doc, would there be a museum dedicated to it? My sense of unease is strengthened by one other element:

Previous to its closure in December 2019, the Newseum, a journalism-themed museum in Washington D.C., had featured a four-story-tall stone panel inscribed with the textual content of the First Modification as a part of its exterior design. The Freedom Discussion board, a nonprofit group that created the museum, introduced in March 2021 that the panel can be dismantled and donated to the Nationwide Structure Middle for show in its second-floor atrium.

So the First Modification was the primary one to go….