Q&A of the Day – Feedback from This Historic Week
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.
Today’s Entry: For today’s Q&A I’m addressing a few of the notes and several of the questions and thoughts that have rolled in during this historic week in the presidential race.
Bottom Line:
Hi Brian, With regards to the presidential election, why is it that an important Republican talking point is the fact that Joe Biden did the honorable thing for our country in stepping down, thus allowing Kamala Harris an opportunity to step up? This is something you sarcastically and disrespectfully, called a “switcheroo” this morning.
Firstly, I don’t do talking points from anybody or any party. 100% of what you hear from me is created by me with source material provided as necessary. I can’t help you with that one. As for your attestation that: The fact that Joe Biden did the honorable thing for our country in stepping down. That, in fact, is not a fact, but rather your opinion. You’re entitled to it, and I’m entitled to mine. My opinion is that there was and is nothing “honorable” about Joe Biden exiting the race when he did and the way he did. I say that for three reasons. 1) He should have stepped out of the race before winning the race so that voters had an opportunity to choose the party’s nominee. 2) Within two days of exiting the race he was on the campaign trail telling voters he was fit enough to serve and intended to serve as president for another four years. 3) If Joe Biden is unfit to finish the presidential race, how is he fit to continue as president of the United States? Would stepping aside as president not be the more honorable thing to do? Your idea of what’s honorable and mine are very different.
As for your having taken exception to the characterization of the exchange of Biden for Harris as a switcheroo... Here is the definition: a change, reversal, or exchange, especially a surprising or deceptive one. You can file your complaint with Merriam Webster. If they change the definition, I’ll issue a retraction.
If we relate this to a baseball game, it’s like the Republicans winning the battle against the starting pitcher, and then the manager of the opposing team decides to make a change and put in a relief pitcher late in the game (It matters not the timeframe in which it happened. The fact is it happened!). You don’t hear the opposing baseball team, complaining for the rest of the game (and forever thereafter), on the idea that now they had to face a new opponent in the relief pitcher. A pitcher who theoretically has an improved chance of getting them out and winning the game. It’s simply the game of baseball. It’s simply the game of politics.
Not once have I complained about that. I never would complain about that. I don’t have a problem with Kamala Harris as the Democrat’s nominee. If I were a registered Democrat, especially in Florida where the state Democrat Party refused hold a presidential primary election this year, I’d probably feel differently, but I’m not and so I don’t.
You don’t need to sway the people with your microphone. Let the people decide on their own who the best candidate is, at the ballot box.
No worries. I’ll continue to do what I’ve done for 27 years. Present the facts with a little humor along the way so people have those in hand as they go to the ballot box, or just to work as is more commonly the case.
It's been a day as I wanted to reflect, but I feel Trump kinda chocked in the debate.
First question from ABC was really a gimme for Trump... "When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?" Harris said a lot of things... but did not answer that question. I was excited how bad her answer was. I hoped Trump was going to thank ABC for the "great question... fantastic question. Did you notice the Vice President made a great stump speech... but did not answer your question?" Then he would go on to give calm facts of why it is not a good economy. Nope... he went straight to the defensive of the VP's irrelevant attacks. Seemed to go downhill from there. My question... did Trump blow the election at the debate? Very depressing.
I agree your assessment that Trump missed an immediate opportunity with the opening question on the economy and also that his performance did not improve from there. As I mentioned on Wednesday, CNN’s polling of debate viewers said that Trump beat Biden in the first debate by a 67%-33% margin had Harris beating Trump Tuesday night by a 63% to 37% margin. That obviously means many Republicans/Trump voters felt as you did while watching the debate. But in terms of blowing the election due to the debate. No, the early returns don’t suggest that was the case. As I cited in yesterday’s Top 3 Takeaways, focus groups of undecided voters commonly found different results, a la the Reuters focus group that found a majority of the undecided voters on their panel intended to vote for Trump after the debate – even though none of them liked Trump or his debate performance. The consensus was that they knew what Trump was about. They were waiting to see what Harris was about and she failed to win them over so they’re breaking for Trump because their lives were better when he was president. And that idea seems to extend beyond small focus groups used by news outlets to gauge the potential impact of the debate. Yesterday the New York Times ran with the story entitled: Pundits Said Harris Won the Debate. Undecided Voters Weren’t So Sure. In that story the New York Times revealed that their panel of undecided voters, that they’ve regularly sampled throughout this cycle were mostly not won over by Harris. One of the panelists summed it up by saying of the debate: It was all disappointing. What we’re starting to see is a pattern. If someone, at this late stage of the election season, is still undecided, it’s because they don’t like Donald Trump but also because they don’t trust Kamala Harris. That didn’t change with the debate because while Harris was better stylistically in her performance, her answers lacked the depth and substance undecided voters feel they need from her. So, while you felt that the debate was depressing from the perspective of a Trump supporter (as many I’ve heard from have), undecided voters felt it was depressing that Harris presented more style than substance.
Trump might have been able to about but seal the election had he put in a better debate performance, however with the few that could be moved by the debate, it was mostly about Harris anyway.
Dear Brian, I feel certain we have come to be a Brian Mudd fan club at this address gathering because we go out of our way to not miss your wisely researched morning valuables. As for the view of the Debate, that is another matter, I fear. What is the purpose of a debate? The contestants' outcome. In Tuesday's unfair, nasty, battle what I, for one, got out of the ABC tainted Demo bash was that Camella* was shallow, inexperienced, uninteresting and bitchy. As for Trump, he was stranded on a mean island left to tell a slow public what the truth was, what Marxists Camella and her father were, what unusual victories Trump had won, while fighting a rotten, bigoted host called Muir, who had taken over Camella's side because she was doing so badly, while doing his dirty best to push Trump into Camella's 'racist' domain. The outcome? I definitely wanted the courage and experience of Trump for the President of the US. I definitely did not want the tiresome, supervised Camella for President of anything left of Communism. And where did Mudd wind up? On Camella's side. I fear you slid into it, Brian.
Ha! That's a good one (the mud joke). I hear you and understand. Just one note. My perception may have been that Kamala’s performance was better than Trump’s in the debate, but rest assured I’m most certainly not on her side. As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. I’ll always present the facts when they’re available and I’ll always be intellectually honest with you as well. I don’t always expect you to agree with me.