Former President Donald Trump dropped the gauntlet Thursday in this campaign season's particularly weird game of Presidential Debate Chicken. Last week, Kinda Acting President/Nominee-Designate Kamala Harris mocked Trump for insisting on a Fox News debate in September. "What happened to any time, any place?" she tweeted.
Well, Trump just announced three times on three networks — including ABC News, which Trump is currently suing for defamation. The Harris camp almost immediately agreed to the ABC News debate (hmm, I wonder why) but has so far only said that she's "happy" to "discuss" the other two.
Before I get to the "I told you so" part, you need to know why this is such a big deal.
For those who are new to Presidential Debate Chicken, let me give you the VodkaPundit version of how it's been played. For my entire adult lifetime, the Commission on Presidential Debates (established in 1987, the first election I was eligible to vote) controlled the debates. From 1976-1984, the televised debates — when there were any — were put on by the League of Women Voters.
Then in 1985, something called the National Commission on Elections (I have no clue what that was or is) for reasons unknown recommended giving "sponsorship of presidential debates to the two major parties," and for other reasons, also unknown, Republicans agreed with Democrats to establish the CPD.
The reason for all the snark is that "bipartisan" rarely means what it appears to mean. In Washington, "bipartisan" usually means "a piece of legislation so stupid, expensive, and destructive to our rights that both parties love it" or "Democrats just rolled the Republicans again."
Recommended: Trump Just Said Out Loud What Everybody in Washington Is Afraid To
Establishing the CPD fell under the second definition. All of those ridiculously biased debates you might have had the misfortune of watching (or the fortune of reading my drunkblog coverage!) were thanks to the GOP rolling over for the Dems on yet another bipartisan commission.
That's why it was so great last May when Trump told the CPD to take a flying leap (my words, not his) and agreed to debate Presidentish Joe Biden completely on Biden's terms.
"What, what?" I can almost hear you ask.
Was agreeing to debate Biden without the biased CPD but on Biden's terms a "difference without distinction," as we used to say on the old debate chat boards? Maybe. But so much more entertaining. Plus, Trump dispensed with the fig leaf of the "bipartisan" CPD and, as I wrote last week, "marched right into the lion's den and showed the world that the lion had no teeth. Or claws. And really should have been napping."
That's why I also wrote last week (same link) that Trump should do the exact same thing with Harris and "accept her terms, no matter how ridiculous, and march into the lion's den once more."
So I'll see you right here, dear reader, on Sept. 10 for what promises to be an epic debate drunkblog.
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