Some years ago, I wrote about the first contested presidential election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson that the campaign was so dirty that to set the bar for future campaigns any lower, you would have to dig a hole.

Last night in Cleveland, Donald Trump and Joe Biden dug a pit and kept on digging for over 90 minutes.  The “crapshow”, as one of my NET3D colleagues aptly described it, was an appalling debacle.

I have been trying to come up with something positive to say about either man’s performance, and I’m simply unable.  The thought that kept running through my head, and which is still there, is, “On January 22, one of these men is going to wake up President.  God help us.”

In 2016 we saw that Trump has the uncanny ability of bringing out the worst in his opponents.  That was on full display, and if anything, is even more fully developed.  Sadly, Biden couldn’t resist, took the bait, and gave as good as he got.  Both men came off as petty, spiteful, disorganized, disrespectful, hateful, undignified, and very close to sordid.  Neither man showed anything about himself that could be called “presidential”, unless the new paradigm is snarling junkyard dog.

Having declared myself a reluctant (very reluctant) Trump supporter, I was hoping to see something about him that would assuage my doubts and dislike, anything at all that would indicate the man has grown into the job, as his better predecessors have.  Nada.  Trump is still Trump, only more so.  Having always thought of Joe Biden as nothing more than an amiable, modestly corrupt hack of limited ability and overweening ambition who would say and do whatever it took to get elected, I am sorry to say that my overall impression is largely the same, although he’s put the lie to his supposed amiability.

So, who won last night?  Not sure – but it wasn’t America.

– Kenneth D. Gough  © 2020