Dick Polman
Deep in last Wednesday’s Democratic debate, an irate Republican strategist John Weaver tweeted: “If the topic is criminal justice, why isn’t there a criminal in the White House? What?”
Weaver, who hates President Donald Trump, hit the nail on the head. Democrats, in their predictable and often desperate zeal to attack each other with gusto, failed to bring any substantive firepower to bear on the incumbent who presided over the crime scene.
Though they were mired in arguments with each other – once again wading deep into the weeds over the intricate details of health policy – Donald Trump got off uncomplicated. And even though Trump hates CNN, he should send the station a bouquet of flowers, thanking its moderators for telling Democrats to beat each other and leave him alone.
Some TV viewers may have been galvanized by insider attacks on Sen. Kamala Harris’s aged tenure as California’s attorney general (she says she’s proud of it) and attacks on Joe Biden’s aged Senate past (she says he’s proud of it): and attacks on Barack Obama – and by extension Biden – for deporting millions of illegal immigrants (some candidates seemed much more upset about Obama than Trump). But I doubt it.
“No Democrat wants to watch our candidates destroy each other. This is a gift for the GOP,” said Simon Rosenberg, a center-left activist of the Democratic Party.
Here’s an example of a timely topic of national importance that never came up on either night: Trump forced Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, to resign. As you may recall, Coats has been fiercely independent in assessing threats to our national security, including Russia and its interference in the 2016 election.
Trump’s ongoing mission is to subjugate the intelligence community and turn it into a partisan instrument of his will at the expense of our national security. Which explains why he’s now trying to replace Coats with a congressman who has constrained intelligence experience and whose longest tenure in public life is eight years as mayor of a miniature Texas town.
This tragic development, which fits into a broader narrative about Trump’s authoritarian instincts at home and weaknesses abroad, certainly deserved attention. CNN moderators could have asked the candidates about it, or, at the risk of breaking “moderator rules,” the candidates could have found a way to raise the issue.
On the national side, here’s something that never came up: Just 10 miles from the Detroit debate hall, in swing Macomb County, auto workers are losing their jobs as a historic General Motors plant closes.
When Trump campaigned for president in Michigan, he declared: “If I’m elected, you won’t lose a single plant, the plants will come to this country, you’ll have jobs again, you won’t lose a single plant, I promise you that. The other day, a Trump voter in this community lamented, “He said the jobs were here to stay. But then I hear about the factory closing. What the hell is going on?”
Over the course of two nights, none of the 20 Democratic candidates mentioned the plant’s closure or the gap between Trump’s promises and performance. This could lend a hand their cause since taking Michigan back from Trump is a top priority in the next Electoral College vote.
If CNN moderators had taken the time to mention the plant closure (instead of asking Harris to argue with Biden again about busing that happened 40 years ago), they could have asked the question the electorate really cared about: How do these Democrats propose growing the economy and creating good jobs with good wages – as opposed to an economy based on sewage and loyalty to Trump’s luxurious?
Michigan Democrats on White House candidates after debates: Don’t take the state for granted
Hardly a single sentence was devoted to this fundamental issue. Meanwhile, a storm erupted on Twitter when Biden welcomed Harris on stage with the words: “Go easy on me, kid.” Was the word “baby” an insult? Was that patronizing? Was it just Joe being Joe? Was it a substantial deal about nothing? Was it a disaster?
Meanwhile, Trump says and does worse whenever he breathes. Thanks to Democrats’ lack of perspective and CNN’s myopic desire for internal conflict, Trump essentially won the debate.
We are left wondering whether the third round, which will take place in September, will bring a better result.
Opinion writer Dick Polman is a national political columnist for WHYY in Philadelphia and writer-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania. His work appears on Mondays on the Capital-Star magazine’s comments page. Readers can email him at [email protected].
