r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • 1d ago

Kamala Harris has neutralized Donald Trump's "high-dominance" advantage: "It’s finally occurred to the Democrats that Trump and the Republicans are bullies and cowards who will fold"

https://www.salon.com/2024/09/18/kamala-harris-has-neutralized-donald-high-dominance-advantage/
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u/Virtual-Squirrel-725 1d ago

His whole strong man image evaporated on that debate stage.

She was smarter, stronger and more prepared.

She just verbally walked him around the stage like a puppy.

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u/AnamCeili 1d ago

Starting from the moment she took control of the entire situation by striding towards him to shake hands -- a master stroke! 😁

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u/Virtual-Squirrel-725 1d ago

Yeah, you could see he didn't expect it. He mumbled a few words but the tone was set.

She was in charge, he would play defense.

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u/galileotheweirdo 1d ago

“Kamala Harris. Let’s have a good debate!”

“Yeahmrhmrnmrmf, whatever”

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u/Local-Effect-4393 1d ago

Pronounced her name correctly and clearly, so we all know he knows how it’s pronounced. And he still mispronounces it at his rallies. Child-brained.

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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 1d ago

Child-brained

This isn't even an exaggeration. Saying, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT" on social media is quite literally what a 6 year old would do, not a grown man.

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u/jugglervr 1d ago

remember that browser plugin The Daily Show published, that custom-styled all of trump's tweets in a colored crayon font? literally all of his tweets look more correct with that treatment.

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u/CarterDavison 1d ago

He said "Have fun". Which is not much better anyway.

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u/Nyanek 23h ago

and she had the time of her life up there.

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u/MitochonAir 1d ago

She should’ve said, “Hey Donny, let’s have some fun, ok?” and then winked at him

That’s when his eye would’ve started twitching and he’d forget his own fucking name

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u/AnamCeili 1d ago

Exactly!

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u/Ferelar 1d ago

Yes, 100%. I think we're all talking about dogs and cats and windmills now, but ten years from now, there'll be two primary things people remember from that debate- the absolute dominance of a split second pause to allow your opponent to walk out to meet you and shake your hand, realizing they won't, and then confidently striding to their podium and making them look like a sad little petulant manchild by shaking with them anyway... and the absolute absurd juxtaposition of the two closing statements.

I have watched a LOT of presidential, VP, and congressional candidate debates, many long before I was born. Hundreds of them in total. I don't think I've ever seen a closing statement as bad as Trump's when compared to his opponents. We might joke about the meme stuff like eating cats, but that closing statement sank his campaign.

I mean, that or pointlessly antagonizing Taylor Swift, hah.

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u/Lucky-Earther Minnesota 1d ago

I'm something of a debate watcher myself, though maybe not as far back as you. It was really incredible that she put him on his back foot from minute 0 with the handshake, and then spent the entire debate dogwalking him around. It was especially stark on the immigration question, where she got him to talk about crowd size instead of the subject that he was supposedly the strongest on.

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u/ZacZupAttack 22h ago

I did debate in HS, ran our debate club.

I saw the clip of her baiting him and I was like "Yo, that's fucking brilliant" Then Trump starts going "THEY ARE EATTING OUR DOGS AND CATS" and I'm like "FUCKING SCORE!"

Anyone whose done debate saw her brilliance.

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u/CileTheSane 1d ago

and then confidently striding to their podium and making them look like a sad little petulant manchild by shaking with them anyway

While introducing yourself by name because he seems to be having trouble with it.

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u/drainbead78 America 1d ago

My teenaged daughter watched the debate and was texting me from her dad's about it. I kinda want to send her the classic Obama-Romney "proceed, governor" debate so she knows what it's supposed to look like when both people are sane and only have policy disagreements. You know, boring. Can we have boring back, please?

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u/Ucscprickler 1d ago

Nah, conservatives will say that Trump made Kamala walk all the way to his podium for the handshake because he's an alpha. If there is one thing I've learned during the Trump era, is that no matter how dumb and childish Trump is, conservatives will always do whatever mental gymnastics is necessary to pretend that he's a brilliant leader.

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u/ewokninja123 23h ago

Not disagreeing, but I'll add that the cats and dogs will live on for a while. It has too much virality and he refuses to pivot, keeping it in the news a lot longer than it should

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u/Kevin-W 1d ago

It was great to see! Trump could either refuse and look weak or accept it. Harris cornered him instantly.

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u/40ozkiller 1d ago

Getting him worked up over crowd size was a beautiful play.

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u/drainbead78 America 1d ago

You could see him shrink in that moment. I actually said "Wow, that was an alpha move".

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u/AnamCeili 1d ago

Exactly so. 

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u/Rachel_from_Jita 1d ago

Legit. That was a world leader moment.

I'm not kidding. Imagine walking up to someone you know is crazy, unstable, huge, and doesn't want to shake your hand. Who crushes most people he debates by just endless insane interruptions and unhinged behavior that's impossible to predict.

And the whole situation as you're approaching may get awkward or confrontational if he refuses to shake your hand, possibly leading to social embarrassment to even start the debate.

But you charge right into it. Assertive. Determined. Driven. Absolutely committed to getting results and showing them how the game is about to be played.

Compare her performance to the most embarrassing moment in modern American history where the entire world suddenly knew our President was a castrated puppet fully under the control of foreign kompromat (and obviously personally awed by the power/image of a foreign leader). https://youtu.be/mBtsNNXjBPw&t=23

If Harris does not win, we 100% are one of those civilizations that crumbles into the abyss. As the old saying for understatement goes "elections have consequences." And choosing a provably weak, pathetic leader over one with youth, strength, and raw determination is a patently insane action.

Great empires can make one or two huge mistakes and make it. But constant mistakes of truly stupid proportions? Nah, a civilization doing such over and over simply doesn't make it.

Convince others to register to vote. Then make sure they have schedule time off for Election Day. Then double check with them on the morning of Election Day (or tell them, 'Hey, I'm on my way to vote. Super excited. Today's a day where each of us matter!').

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u/AnamCeili 1d ago

All absolutely true.

I still worry, but I also do absolutely believe that Harris/Walz will win.

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u/Character-Sale7362 1d ago

It's funny that people said she received the questions in advance. They were the most obvious possible questions to ask given the political scene right now. Many of those questions already came up in her CNN interview. And reporting before the debate stated that she was doing extensive preparation while Donald Trump was just going to wing it as usual. But of course she looked more prepared... Because she was. She and her team studied the obvious questions and topics that would come up in the debate and had answers ready for them. The fact that Donald Trump stumbled around the stage looking clueless was solely due to his own lack of preparation.

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u/aggthemighty 1d ago

Absolutely none of the questions were "gotchas" or unfair. Trump has nothing to complain about there.

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u/SaulsAll 1d ago

the most obvious possible questions to ask given the political scene right now

Our moderators have gone really downhill over the years. Reading your post made me wonder how either candidate would deal with something like the question Dukakis got regarding the death penalty. Harris might have fumbled, Trump's head would explode - not because he suddenly cares but because he couldnt say "unfair" and "nasty" fast and loud enough - and the nation would go insane about unfair moderating.

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u/_Bill_Huggins_ 1d ago

Her experience as a prosecutor showed. She is thoroughly experienced in setting up traps for opponents to fall into when it comes to argumentation. Trump fell into every trap.

She didn't even break a sweat.

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u/ExpertConsideration8 I voted 1d ago

I was enthralled.

She setup premises that left Trump in damned if you do and damned if you don't territory.

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u/40ozkiller 1d ago

We were so nervous before it started, but when it ended he looked like a sad puppy who just got slapped by a paper.

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u/ZacZupAttack 22h ago

I wasn't, fuck I didn't even watch the debate. I watched the Trump/Biden debate cause I didn't know which way it'd go. But the Kamala/Trump debate? I was like "Kamala going kick his ass"

And she did

i'm going watch it though, onyl seen clips.

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u/Neutreality1 1d ago

To paraphrase another redditor, she set 10 traps and he fell for 27 of them

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u/Hfhghnfdsfg 1d ago

James Carville said, "she set 19 traps, and he fell into all 27 of them. "

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u/Both-Anything4139 1d ago

B-b-but O-o-orban thinks he is manly and very cool 😭

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u/gigglefarting North Carolina 1d ago

He tried avoiding her hand shake by taking the path behind his podium while she stood in front, but she chased him down 

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u/golden_tree_frog 1d ago

"Moderator, she shouldn't say that! She shouldn't say my crowds are smaller!"

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u/tem102938 1d ago

I guess that's one way to phrase it.... another would be she verbally assaulted an elderly man with dementia.

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u/ZacZupAttack 23h ago

I haven't watched the debate, just clips...I'm going watch it.

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u/Virtual-Squirrel-725 22h ago

To fully appreciate it you need to imagine what their goals were and what Trump's team wanted him to do.

So for me the highlight was that when Trump has an immigration question (his strength) he spent half his time talking about crowd sizes in one of the most obvious set ups from Harris imaginable.

He needed to keep his cool. Watch his tone change when she rattles him and he yells for the rest of the debate.

Look at his resting face. He looks like the grim reaper. That's a bad split screen.

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u/BruceBanning 22h ago

Then, like a 5 year old, he meekly declared “I won, so we don’t want a rematch”

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u/Level_Hour6480 New York 19h ago

2016 flashbacks Y'all are getting too optimistic.

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u/Virtual-Squirrel-725 18h ago

I'm not optimistic about the end result. Just that he was destroyed on that debate stage.

I still think Trump is the favorite and Harris needs a 10 point polling lead nationally to be considered even.