[For Sept. 12 debate, go here.]
After addictively reading the Times' Ross Douthat merely to absorb his unwavering advice on what sort of conservative Catholic morality I should hug, I was pleased to read, this morning, his titled opinion that "Joe Biden Won Last Night’s Democratic Debate."
What makes Douthat readably palatable to me is that even though he's America's self-ordained pope, full of only kindling fire and muted fury, he detests Donald Trump with all the unChristian passion of an Ali Khamenei. Trump stands in emetic opposition to everything that Douthat holds dear: a community-oriented conservatism with steadfast, authoritative religion at its core. To me, that sounds like the first circle of hell. Nevertheless, it beats the bejesus out of contemporary, Trumpian cryptofascism.
But enough on Douthat's bio and ideological leanings. Here's the crux of his — I think — piercingly accurate analysis:
"It would be very useful to Biden if what happened last night kept happening, which would require at least one other would-be moderate to hang around … and poll at 4 or 8 percent instead of sinking perpetually back toward zero…. They could make a direct and pointed and unapologetic case against the major leftward candidates … so that Biden doesn’t have to do it….
"Biden’s tricky task … will be to prove he can counterpunch without seeming to be too anti-left, too ready for ideological civil war…. [H]e’s holding 30 percent of the primary electorate when nobody else has much more than half that, his core constituency is precisely the sort of voter who doesn’t give a rip who left-wing or media Twitter thinks is winning the debates, and three weeks after Harris supposedly demolished him, their whole encounter barely even registers in polls…. Biden is the most important figure in the two-night spectacle — and he enters CNN’s arena tonight as still, and perhaps enduringly, the candidate to beat."
***
Very low ratings for the Democratic Debate last night — they’re desperate for Trump!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2019
Democrats are desperate for Trump?