Presidential Debate

The presidential debate has come and gone.  As you all know already, most everyone believed that Kamala Harris decidedly beat Donald Trump in the debate.  There were some on the far right that spun the debate in a way that favored Trump.  Be that as it may, Karl Rove, a staunch conservative still supportive of Trump, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Trump’s debate performance was nothing short of “catastrophic.”  He went on to say that “Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he dismissed as ‘dumb as a rock,’ which raises the question:  What does that make him.”

Listening to the debate, I felt as if it came from a skit from Saturday Night Live.  The one critical difference, however, was that rather than an actor impersonating Trump, he was impersonating himself.  His assertion that democrats favor abortion after nine months at the birth of a child was so absurd that one of the moderators countered by telling him there had not been a shred of evidence to support such a claim. His preposterous statement that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio were devouring the cats and dogs of their owners was an example of such an absurd statement that Saturday Night Live would be hard pressed to find something as ridiculous.  Subsequent, to the debate, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Republican, spoke powerfully on behalf of the Haitian immigrants.  He maintained that they are helping to bring a depressed city back to life.

Although Kamala Harris was considered the victor in her debate performance, she had the good fortune of being aided by her opponent, Donald Trump.  In fact, Trump represents one of the biggest assets that Harris brings to the election.  Harris showed uncanny wit in the way she lured Trump into making a fool of himself.  An example of this occurred when Harris blocked and parried the question of how she would handle immigration policy in the future.  Rather than answering the question, she pointed out that at Trump rallies many leave early because of boredom.  Given his inflated ego, she predicted correctly he would take this personally and defend himself.  

Harris offered an economic plan that has yet to be fleshed out in details.  Inasmuch as her advisers don’t want her to unnecessarily disclose information that might offend certain groups, her projected economic policies remain unclear.  Although Harris handled Trump and the debate quite deftly, polls indicate that she did not gain too much from her performance.  She has challenged Trump to a follow-up debate that Trump has declined all well knowing that a second debate would certainly not increase his influence on voters.

My wife, Lisa, and I saw the debate at the Jewish Community Center in Long Beach.  At the debate, there were mostly women and a few of us good men who set up materials for creating packages.  These packages were Abortion Comfort Kits to be distributed to Orange County and San Bernadino’s Planned Parenthood.  We formed an assembly line in which each person on the line would insert an article into a gift bag.  The articles we put into these bags included menstrual pads, oreo cookies, Kind bars, tea bags, Kleenex and friendship cards that people wrote on with supportive messages that offered comfort to those seeking an abortion.

The project has united women’s groups with Planned Parenthood, which has touched the lives of more than 1200 women.  These women have come from states all over the country where the rules vis-à-vis abortion are much more stringent than here in California.  I am proud of my wife, Lisa, the president of the National Council of Jewish Women–Greater Long Beach and West Orange County, who has spent many hours working on this project.  I admired the enthusiasm displayed by these women in carrying out what I consider a task of great worth.