Observations from the Other Other Wes Moore on the Trump Harris Debate^[1]

Back in the hypersensitive days of yore, Gary Hart’s extra marital shenanigans or Howard Dean’s oddly too exuberant “woo-hoo” could suddenly disqualify candidates from seeking their party’s presidential nomination. 

To coin a phrase, “Them days is over.” Nowadays, paying hush money to porn stars and being convicted on thirty-four felony counts are no longer disqualifying. 

Also, nowadays, online misinformation is taken as the gospel truth by simpleminded people. 

For example, here are two direct quotes from Donald Trump from Tuesday’s debate, which, in a sane society, would in and of themselves end his campaign for the presidency..

Quote number one: “Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.” 

This statement is so off-the-charts-creepy-Thanksgiving-dinner-bachelor-great-uncle-ish, that I can’t summon the energy to cough up from my dyspeptic spleen an HL Menckenesque screed of mockery because Trump’s claim is so batshit crazy that anything I’d come up with wouldn’t do justice to its absurdity.^[2]

So here’s another quote: “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” [i.e., Springfield, Ohio]

They, being Haitians, i.e., goggle-eyed zombies that at night wander from homestead to homestead abducting unfenced pets to feed on their brains.

An aside: Do white people hate people of color so much they don’t mind that this idiot is in charge of the nuclear codes?  

When the debate started, I disapproved of Kamala’s first answer, an evasion of the question, a rehearsed opening salvo, a laundry list of proposals, and I thought Trump looked calm and uncharacteristically presidential at first. I was worried for a minute or two.

However, in no time. he was careening into nonsense while she was getting her groove, smiling incredulously in high-snark amusement while Trump bragged about how much Hungarian strongman Vicktor Orbán admired him. 

His performance throughout the debate was the opposite of grace under pressure. 

In other words, it was ugly – like his rallies, like his hair, like his suits, like his ties. 

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^[1]For the record, I’m not the Governor of Maryland.

^[2] I’d love some grammar maven to diagram that sentence.