By Frank J Biga III -
There seems to be a lot of hand-wringing and angst on the GOP side over Donald Trump’s debate performance last Monday nite. To which I reply, "It won’t matter."
Did Obama’s abysmal and downright tired performance in the first debate affect him in 2012? No. Did Ronald Reagan’s seeming absent-mindedness affect the results in 1984? No. Did George Bush’s initial debate performance against John Kerry stop him from winning? No.
So there is little to justify this near panic by some in the GOP over the first debate. In fact, it sets up the expectations game for the coming debates and if Trump can improve each time (and save his choicest attacks for the last one), he will come out looking better and will poise his campaign for the final surge that will be needed to recapture our nation-state from those that wish its demise. But there is more to his debate performance than just the expectations game.
Let’s also keep in mind that journalism is a business. It requires a story to sell. And in the age of nearly infinite choices on cable television and the Internet it relies a lot more on emotion and story-telling rather than reporting the facts and news of the day. So these pundits and self-anointed poobahs of the industry need a compelling narrative. The more sensational the better. If there are no ups and downs the news is just um BORING and they have nothing exciting to write or opine about.
And I think Trump knows this too. He is the best self-promoter of our age. And he’s a maestro at manipulating the press. There is no one like him. He truly can be the hero of our age. He also knows that many in the media will attack him without mercy because quite a few have never had a real education and thus believe in the fairy tales of liberalism. Many of them have no idea about the sinister designs of the elites either. Heck, many of them don’t even know the difference between a balance sheet and an income statement.
So, in order to make the liberal media work for him (without them even really knowing it), the narrative must be constantly fed. Trump has to create a story laced with treachery, intrigue, drama, dirty tricks and political street-fighting to keep the press distracted. Some of Trump’s attacks in the first debate and after it are a part of this. Then, after much moral preening, gnashing of teeth and spewing of invective by the press, the final cleansing catharsis can occur. Trump will be redeemed and will win the comeback of the ages. This has already happened once since the convention with Trump coming back to lead prior to the debates. It will happen again. And this time he’s not so far down.
Trump, as the director of this opera, has to carefully weave the narrative, control it, and then ever so carefully ride the crest of the final positive wave to victory at the last minute all without the press knowing what just happened. And there really is no other way considering the enormity and brute strength of the forces arrayed against him. Trump is strategically a Fox, while being a rhetorical Hedgehog.
Some may disagree with this assessment. Some who are at least nominally on his side have basically asserted that Trump is stupid and knows nothing or very little on the issues. I say…. NO WAY! He knows what he is doing. The tactics are deliberate and well-thought out. He solidified his base in the first debate and turned some of the Reagan Democrats in the Rust Belt towards him. And being a little behind in the polls has the added bonus of keeping them motivated and in the game.
In the second and third debates, where the formats will be more compatible with his strengths, Trump will come across as reasonable and personable and will appeal to the suburbanites he needs to win this election. The expectations are now already low. The media narrative is that Clinton hit it out of the park in the first debate and that Trump blew it. Romney and Obama had the same storyline in 2012. Trump can only improve, as did Obama. That’s a good position to be in. Trump will show a different side at the next debate. And that is what will matter come November 8.
