Did you watch the entire Biden-Trump debate? Congratulations.

You may be surprised at how I watched it. I decided to concentrate on the content for each candidate and ignore “performance or style.”

A couple of comments I predicted last week came up. Biden mixed up “millions, billions, trillions.” Trump responded once with “I really don’t know what he said.”  “Convicted felon” was expected. “We finally beat Medicare.” was not.

As I said, I watched for content. As to style and performance, both Trump and Biden were pretty much as we have seen them the last couple of years.

Here is the shocker. After the debate, I was surprised to hear TV journalists and commentators, almost unanimously, say that Biden failed miserably. This was on CNN and MSNBC! Was this the first time they ever saw him confused, stumbling over words, mumbling incoherent answers? Where have they been the last 4 years? Did they expect a full week of practice would produce a brilliant orator? I’m glad they recognized that Biden had a terrible debate.

These are journalists (“news hounds,” as Will Rogers called them) with direct access to top people in the White House. Why did they accept the obvious lies about what terrific shape Biden was in “behind closed doors?” The apparent answer is that they were in on the deception.

The New York Times, Washington Post, and the mainstream TV networks totally supported Biden’s policies. By contrast, do you remember any major policy of the Trump Administration that they applauded?

As a part time professional speaker, I’m wondering about seven days of preparation and practice for 90 minutes on stage. Since Biden had a full stage setup at Camp David, I’m sure that almost every night at 9:00 they did a mock debate with moderators and Trump impersonators. I also bet they were recorded because that’s how speakers (and speech coaches) would make improvements. How did he do in the practice debates? I doubt we will ever see those videotapes.

Interestingly, the next day President Biden gave a campaign speech in North Carolina. He was forceful and determined, not bumbling and incoherent, illustrating the huge difference between Teleprompter Joe and Debater Joe.

The Supreme Court handed down a couple of major decisions this week, with another due tomorrow. One might free a lot of people on trial for entering the Capitol on January 6.

For me, the most far-reaching decision gives judges, not bureaucrats, the final decision on interpretation of laws passed by Congress. The Judicial Branch will no longer “defer to federal agencies to interpret the law if a statue is unclear.”  The decision overturned a requirement that fishing boats must pay for a federal inspector onboard full time.

More broadly, for example, it means an environmental activist in the EPA cannot prevent a rancher from building a pond a couple of miles from a small stream. And the Energy Department can’t make rulings intended to outlaw gasoline powered cars. The Bureau of Land Management cannot randomly change 20,000,000 acres of federal land from grazing to “Wilderness.” Any such “mandates” may now be appealed to a judge (and jury).

The challenge now is for Congress to write laws that are “plain and understandable only one way.” (See Will’s quote about lawyers.)

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

       “There is very little dignity, very little sportsmanship, or very little anything in politics, only ‘get the job and hold it.’”  DT#1949, Nov. 2, 1932

      “The minute you read something and you can’t understand it you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer. Then if you give it to another lawyer to read and he don’t know just what it means, why then you can be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer. If it’s in a few words and is plain and understandable only one way, it was written by a non-lawyer.” WA #657, July 28, 1935