Last night’s debate was a big disappointment to me. Yes- Kamala was awake, engaged and almost “Presidential,” but she failed to delivered what I need (and I believe most viewers wanted to hear). I believe she seriously flubbed an opportunity that will not return and very likely will cost her the race.

I suppose I should mention Trump’s performance. It was a mixture of pretty good points embedded in his normal circus show of lies, stupid comments and insults. The thing is, almost nobody who is “on the fence” cares at all about the lies, stupid comments and insults – in fact they find them kind of fun and entertaining. What they care about are the rather sparse statements of what he plans to do if elected. I only heard four things that he plans on doing, (1) get the abortion question out of the overview of the Federal Government and instead leave it up to the States, (2) put a 20% tariff on imports from some countries (at least China, maybe more), (3) cut taxes even more for the rich (increasing the deficit by $6 trillion dollars), and (4) end the war in Ukraine in one day by talking to the two sides. He didn’t provide any details about any of these statements including details about things like what would happen to the USA economy should he implement broad 20% tariffs, how he would manage to stop the war in Ukraine in a day, or any of the other things he “promised.” (Actually, he promised almost nothing; he mostly just ranted, insulted and said many amazingly stupid things.)

However, the facts that Trump says nothing of substance or that he just makes up outrageous lies and insults has no impact upon the election. Those that are appalled by his antics still won’t vote for him, those that find his antics to be funny and “down home” heartwarming will ignore them. What he said or did will have zero impact upon the election. However, Harris’s influence has a potential impact because there are many people who are sitting on the fence but would like a better choice. My friend who pleaded for me to give him a reason to NOT vote for Trump is a case in point. I wanted her to give me details that I could then discuss with my friend as the reasons for not voting for Trump. Unfortunately, in my view she failed to provide that.

Harris said that she would do a handful of things: (1) Get something like Row V Wade reinstalled, (2) Create an opportunity economy, (3) impose the bi-partisan immigration reform bill that was killed in Congress, (4) increase use of diverse source of energy to decrease reliance upon foreign oil, (5) work on charting a course toward a two-state solution while maintaining our support for Israel, (6) create opportunities in the countries where the immigrants are coming for in order to stem their desire to come here, and (7) not take guns away from Americans.

What I wanted to hear from Harris is a tiny bit more about these things. I wanted her to explain that Roe v Wade removes restrictions on abortions earlier than 24 months, but allows States to determine the policy after that. I wanted her to tell me how her “opportunity economy” would work without increasing inflation by handing out free money to families and small businesses – is that all she has in mind?? I wanted her to mention what she means by “diverse sources of energy.” I want to know how she will make that happen. I wanted to know how she intends to bring industry back to the USA (or even if that is her intent). I wanted to know how she intends to bolster the economies of southern countries without inflaming corruption as has been the case so many times in the past. I wanted to know how her approach to a two-state solution would work any better than what happened in the past. There are more things that I wanted to hear about – but instead much time was squandered by both sides throwing mud at each other. I don’t think Harris needed to throw much mud – everyone is aware of the negative things about her opponent. Rather than waste time throwing mud I wish she had briefly outlined how should would accomplish things, not just offering vague areas that need work on.

One of the really big problems that I noticed with Harris’s discussions came when she was asked if the economy is better or worse than when she came into office. She didn’t answer that question, and I think she should have done so in a factual and forthright way. She didn’t hide anything by avoiding the question, she just buried herself. Her answer was she is going to promote an “opportunity economy” by giving a $6000 child credit and making “substantial” tax breaks for small businesses. By saying these things she made it clear that she agrees that the economy got much worse during her term as VP, and that she has no plan about how to change that. It would have been far better to admit it, explain why it happened, and tell us a bit about the actual path forward. A $6000 child credit and tax breaks for small businesses isn’t going to cut it unless there are a lot of other things to go along with it.

My overall opinion was that she put on a better, saner and more positive show. She did a better job of pointing out a few areas that need improvements… but she didn’t give me any substantive answers to take back to my friend to help he understand why he shouldn’t vote for Trump. My friend already knows about the personality issues, he wants to know how Harris will make his life better. Inflation is killing him, how is that going to be brought under control. It is good enough for inflation to be stopped, it needs to be reversed or incomes have to be increased otherwise everyone will experience a real, permanent decrease in their quality of life. If it is not possible to provide a plan for fixing this problem, at least describe why the problem is so intractable and what tools can be brought to bear on fixing the problem. A little education might be useful to bring clarity into the real nature of the problem.

And…. a really big missed opportunity was for Harris to point out that running the County is not a one-person show. It is a very large group effort, and that specifically her office is not just her dictating but instead considers the wisdom of many of the nation’s brightest and most experienced individuals that have deep understanding and experience in their respective fields of expertise. She isn’t just a person, she is the sum total of a whole lot of people from the Cabinet and important agencies on down. She needed to point out that she is a “manager” bringing the combined efforts of the best and brightest to assist the Country in finding a better path forward. She could point out that Trump does exactly the opposite, he fires the best and brightest and fills those positions with people loyal to him rather than the Country. Harris needs to get the monkey off of her back and make sure we know her job isn’t to do all of those wonderful things, her job is to put together a coalition of smart people working together to find solutions, and that this coalition needs to include both Democrats and Republicans to achieve success for the whole.

I am glad that Kamala was not an embarrassment – but I don’t think she did what it takes to change the minds of those that don’t embarrass easily. She needed to answer the question of, “What about the policies?”