The second debate

 I had been wrong, there was a second debate. I didn't want to watch it first, as I find watching or listening to Trump

cringeworthy, but eventually, I decided to do it. I wanted to see Biden one more time (for reassurance, like many others), and I also didn't want to form an opinion based on second-hand sources.

Trump surprised me and many others I guess. He has dialed down the volume to the minimum - to a Trump-minimum, at least. At times his tone was even bordering conciliatory. Some things didn't change, though. When confronted with facts - the Woodward-tapes, for example - he changed the subject immediately without any segue. He repeated the same lies and nonsenses, over and over again. Biden is corrupt, his family has taken money from everyone, Hunter's laptop, yada-yada, Biden has achieved nothing in 47 years, he himself is not a politician, but a savior of the forgotten people, he is treated so so badly by everyone.

Reading between the lines, one could discern the following. The "let's try the presidential dignity" -act is a clear indication that his "amazing" performance during the last debate was deemed as a catastrophe even by his own team. He wondered aloud how Biden could raise so much money - meaning his campaign is way behind and it hurts him and they hope some idiot voters will buy it that it's the result of Trump's self-restraint. He mentioned Hunter's laptop only passingly - so there is not even a grain of truth in the story. The rest was the usual hot air and brazen lying. 

Trump's straight-faced attempts to smear Biden with the shit he himself swims in - namely using his position to enrich himself and sucking up to dictators - would be a spectacle on its own right if it wasn't so boring. Many Trump-defenders take the view that he is a stand-up comedian. I agree. But he is shit at that.

As for Biden, no one will ever mistake him for a 40-year old, that's for sure. He sometimes visibly forgot the right word and had to rephrase the sentence, often slurred, and walked away at the end like, well, like a 76-year old man. But he had his moments. He got more relaxed by mid-time, even smiled, and joked with the moderator and his direct addresses to the public were done well. When he was talking about the healthcare-plan, his enthusiasm really shone through. And public speaking, especially if the stakes are this high, is stressful. It's easy to be an armchair-expert.

Still, his team didn't do a very good job at preparing him for Trump. The man is such a huge balloon of hot fart, a relaxed, witty debater could have poked fun at him with no end, and it wouldn't have taken him long to burst. Biden said "he likes thugs like the North-Korean leader" instead of making fun of the love letters and the "he really loves his people"-Trumpisms. When Trump bragged about that Kim Jong-un was willing to meet him, and not with Obama, Biden should have reminded him that it is supposed to be the American president who grants audience to a lowlife if he deserves, and not the other way around. Trump was boasting about his own humiliation and it was left unexploited. If only an Obama had been there...

At the end of the day, Trump kept repeating, like a broken record, how corrupt Biden is, and had nothing else to say. A laconic testament of the incompetence of the man and his team. Biden emphasized that this election is about the character, contrasting himself to Trump. It was a smart decision.

Will this debate sway the voters? Absolutely not.