Batman Don vs. Joe the Joker with Candy Wallace as referee

The first Presidential debate of this current silly season brought back memories of the Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan single Vice-Presidential Debate of 2012.

Congressman Ryan, the GOP’s Statistics Wonk of that era, came prepared to engage in a serious debate, and Joe the Joker ridiculed poor Paul by not taking him seriously.  Paul didn’t know how to respond, so he’s back home in Wisconsin, when not attending the Fox Corporation Board of Directors’ meetings, the parent company of Fox News.

Paul took it on the chin back then.  Because that’s what Republican candidates for high office did. They passively played the role of the Washington Generals basketball team in faux-competitive games against the Harlem Globetrotters.

Back in one of the three 2012 Presidential Debates, referee Candy Crowley spun the narrative toward Obama’s direction by correcting Mitt Romney when Romney was correct to begin with.

Romney took it on the chin from Candy because that’s what Republican candidates did back then. They froze in obedience when the moderator intervened.  

It played out differently this time.  After a gender-change operation, Candy re-appeared as Chris Wallace, Son of the Hall of Fame Gotcha Journalist, Mike Wallace.  Mike and Chris are attached thru DNA, not by upbringing.  Chris’s parents divorced when he was a year old, and Chris was raised by his mother and stepfather, Bill Leonard.  Bill was then President of CBS News - the network where Mike Wallace gained his fame as the ambush host of CBS’ 60 Minutes.  Liberal Media is a small village.

Last night, Chris channeled his DNA father more than once in the debate, but the most overt time was when he validated the recent New York Times “bombshell” article that implied that Trump is a serial tax-dodger.  Chris played the “$750 yearly Trump taxes paid” card. (The accusation, perhaps based on leaked IRS records – which is illegal, by the way – is un-sourced. Chris’ DNA dad would be proud.)  

Chris never lost control because he never had it to begin with

Back to 2012 and Romney vs. Obama.

In an October 17, 2012 Times’ article entitled “In Debate’s Dance, Romney Has More Missteps,” a Time’s columnist wrote:  “Mr. Obama kept his eyes on his Republican opponent, whereas Mr. Romney’s gaze kept straying over to the moderator, Candy Crowley of CNN, peevishly calling on her to give him more time and reverting to type {sic} as a man as passionate about rules and procedure as policy. He even asked her to intercede by calling her name three times, “Candy, Candy, Candy.”

Voters saw Mittens as the kid in school who bounced up-and-down saying “Teacher, teacher, teacher, call on me.” That’s not Trump-like; he doesn’t wait to be called on.  

In past debates, GOP Presidential Candidates wore fencing gloves when debating.  But Trump wears boxing gloves.

For his part, Chris never lost control because he never had it to begin with.

In an unguarded moment, Wallace’s impartial façade came down when he accused Trump of interrupting more often than The Joker.  
Meanwhile, Joe deployed his patented response to accusations from Batman Don by smiling and laughing.  It’s his standard M.O.  When confronted, if you can’t respond, aim to humiliate your opponent by making a joke of things.  He did it often with Paul Ryan back in 2012.  First belittle your opponent, and then say, “Come on, man…Look, here’s the deal…”

Wallace pulled a full-Monty Crowley

Wallace pulled a full-Monty Crowley when he dropped the impartial moderator mask and asked Trump about the Times’ article alleging that Trump only paid $750 in taxes.   

We waited in vain for a similar Wallace query to Joe the Joker concerning his video-documented threat to withhold a $2 billion US aid package to Ukraine if the company his son was “working” for, Burisma Holdings Limited, continued to be investigated. Son Hunter’s knowledge of the oil & gas industry didn’t extend beyond his probable ability to pump his own gasoline.

Wallace didn’t ask The Joker about the recent CBS News article concerning the Senate’s investigation in the Bidens and Ukraine that began with: “The Republican chairmen of two Senate committees released Wednesday a controversial report on possible conflicts of interest between the Bidens and Ukraine, finding that Hunter Biden’s position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings was ‘problematic’ and that warnings about his role were ignored by the Obama administration.”

Nor was Wallace going to surface Hunter’s escapades in China, where he has more business connections than LA Lakers’ star LeBron James and Hollywood’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. That would have taken the “debate” off-script.

Batman Don fights back

Perhaps, the most succinctly accurate summary of the event was offered by a post-debate commenter on one of the liberal “news” channels.  She said, “It was a food fight.”

That’s close.

More so, though, it was the verbal actualization of Biden’s bizarre physical threat to take Trump out behind the school and beat him up for lying, except Batman Don wasn’t about to let that happen. He fights back.

And that’s what his base loves about him.