Harris-Trump debate sets low bar for issues for the taxpayers

Kamala Harris achieved her goals in this week's debate while Donald Trump did not. Neither candidate spoke in much detail on the issues the public needed to hear on economy, abortion, immigration ...

By Ray Hanania

FREE/Politics Presidential Debate/Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024

The debate between presidential candidates Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris may have achieved some goals for the candidates, but it did little to strengthen American confidence in the country’s future.

Neither candidate delved deeply into issues failing to provide the answers the public needs to hear on how each would address the major issues such as controlling immigration, improving the economy, helping Senior Citizens, achieving a compromise on the bitter political fight over abortion, and on America’s increasingly precarious state in international affairs and foreign policy.

Bluster and vague claims don’t cut it.

Harris managed to show that she can stand on her own two feet, hold her own, and not be rattled by Trump. But that was it. In that sense, Harris won.

Democrats were so concerned about how she would do after the debacle of the Trump-Biden debate which exposed Biden’s cognitive troubles to a shaken public and forced him to withdraw from the election, there was talk this would be the only debate. Now, the Democrats want another debate.

Republicans didn’t get much from Trump, who was dragged into responding to taunts from Harris and seemed rattled a bit, although he was not as confrontational as he could have been.

Neither candidate provided any answers on how to address the major issues. But if doing better than the other is the criteria these days for “winning,” Harris clearly won. She won for her existing supporters, but did little to win support from the undecided in a presidential election that everyone says is “too close to call.”

Before the “Trump Era” of politics, debates were organized by the Presidential Commission on Debates, not by the biased mainstream news media. In those past debates, they were better structured and they forced the candidates to address issues in detail.

Debates were often themed on issues like addressing the economy, or other issues, instead of speed-racing through topics with personal attacks, shallow headlines and unexplained assertions of how the challenges would be addressed.

It would have been better if Tuesday’s debate was divided into four 30 minute segments of Economy, Immigration, Abortion, Foreign Policy. Too bad for America, it wasn’t.

What did we get out of the debate that we didn’t already know, except that Kamala Harris is not Joe Biden?

Media fact-checking has become a political weapon to injure political foes. The public doesn’t get any facts. They only get one-sided spin.

It was shameful to watch this debate meander through two-hours of non-substance and bickering, name calling from both sides, and shallow responses to serious issues and challenges.

Harris did a better job of reenforcing her issues, like abortion, healthcare and Biden’s tepid approach to the economy.

Trump did a poor job of reinforcing his issues, including immigration, the economy and foreign affairs. He just couldn’t stop himself from being suckered into losing emotional and petty arguments that are not that important to the voters.

Neither gave any answers on how they would improve things or resolve the major issues.

Yes, I guess, Harris “won.”

Trump didn’t do too badly, but he wasn’t very good and could have done worse.

In the end, it is the American taxpayers who lost. No solutions. No answers, No plans. No vision for the future. Just a lot of empty political rhetoric and promises n a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous at home and overseas.

PODCAST NOTE:
If you are interested, you can watch columnist Ray Hanania discuss the debate with former Congressman Bill Lipinski on their weekly podcast, Two Guys on Politics, on Youtube by clicking this link or watching using the wedget below.

If you are interested in Middle East issues, make sure to also watch Ray Hanania’s weekly radio show (broadcast every Thursday at 5 PM in Michigan) on the US Arab Radio Network (WNZK AM 690) sponsored by Arab News newspaper, by visiting ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.

In this week’s show, Thursday Sept. 12, 2024, Hanania discusses the Trump-Harris debate with four Arab American journalists and analysts:

Joseph Haboush is the Washington correspondent for Al Arabiya English, covering US foreign policy and national security from the State Department and Pentagon. He previously worked for The Daily Star and The Telegraph while based in Beirut and was a non-resident scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute think-tank.

Amal Mudallali, a consultant on international affairs and a former Ambassador to the United Nations and a former journalist.

Joyce Karam

Joyce Karam is the senior news editor at Al-Monitor and a journalist with decades of experience covering the Middle East, US foreign policy and international affairs. She authors Al-Monitor’s weekly China-Middle East Briefing newsletter and serves as a professor of political science at George Washington University.

Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute for Strategic Outreach; the Founder of Global Policy Associates (GPA); Adjunct Prof. at George Washington University.