Friday, October 23, 2020

The Morning After the Night Before

A member of the PBS "panel" speaks: I see your Amy Walter, and raise you a David Corn: This is "well-disciplined": He wasn't yelling, anyway. Trump didn't call those states "shitholes." Win! He insulted people from Central America and implied following rules is for suckers and fools; but he didn't interrupt Biden to do it! Win! Well, as long as he can be better behaved for 10-11 more days, right? Win!
But in a moment of relentless national upheaval, manifesting in protest, public health crisis and immense financial turmoil, Mr. Trump also could not help but accentuate the most essential qualities of his tenure on Thursday, reverting to fits of magical-thinking-aloud and grievance-stuffed nonrestraint.

He set off on an extended meditation — most likely to resonate with only dedicated consumers of right-wing media — on whether Joe Biden’s nickname was “the big man” as it related to his son’s business dealings. He dwelled on “the emails, the emails, the horrible emails” with conspiratorial repetition.

He invoked Abraham Lincoln to praise his own contributions to Black Americans.

He specked his virus defense with an aside that “we can’t lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does,” before nodding at purportedly shadowy sources of Biden family wealth. (“He’s obviously made a lot of money someplace,” he said.)

("Dwelled"?  Doesn't the NYT style manual require "dwelt" in that sentence?  I'm too tired to parse the grammar, but my ear won't let that pass.) That one makes me wonder if Trump isn't jealous, since he inherited his wealth, and has struggled all his life to hang on to it.  

He can resemble a chef with one dish, a golfer with one club in his bag — regardless of what the next stroke might require — and a propensity to blame his caddie for the attendant result.

If voters reject him next month, this will be the chief reason: The 2020 campaign is different, and Mr. Trump is not.

He still focused extensively Thursday on often unsubstantiated allegations against his opponent’s son, defying some Republican allies who have counseled that the attacks connect little beyond the conservative echo chamber where Mr. Trump is already beloved.

He still made virtually no attempt to outline a comprehensive second-term agenda that might appeal to any remaining political fence-sitters — to the extent that there are many left, in an election where many millions have already voted and most others are largely set in their views, according to polling.

A much more sensible analysis than "well-disciplined tonight." And that person Trump tried to wedge in, who had new "dirt" on Biden? Even the WSJ isn't biting:
Gotta end the night somewhere.
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