NEWS AND OPINION:
Americans won’t have to face another presidential debate for another four years. The ill will and melodrama surrounding the “debates” this time around have taken a toll on just about everyone. A new poll — found at the end of this column — finds that 44% of Americans say future debates should not be held at all. One analyst has some advice for voters, candidates and planners when 2024 rolls around.
“Four years from now the two parties should take back control of the debates. And the business of having a ’moderator’ who in fact is a thinly — very thinly — disguised liberal or creature of the Washington Establishment should end. It would be far better to have two moderators — one a conservative and one a liberal, selected by each of the campaigns — to ask the questions,” writes Jeffrey Lord, a contributing editor to The American Spectator.
“If the latest debate were to be really fair, the liberal NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker would be paired with someone like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Mark Levin. There are a lot of Americans who would load up on the popcorn debate night to see Joe Biden being grilled by any of these three,” he continues.
“The most famous of presidential debates — the 1960 series between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon — managed to thrive with no one other than the two campaigns and the television network involved doing the negotiating of the rules,” Mr. Lord notes.
TRUMP HATE: WHAT’S OUT THERE
Some disturbing news from Milford, New Hampshire — a town of 15,000 in the southern portion of the Granite State. The story is best summarized by WMUR, an ABC affiliate in Manchester.
“Milford police are trying to track down whoever is behind a series of letters that were sent to supporters of President Trump threatening to burn down their homes. Kelly, a Milford resident who asked to be identified only by her first name, said she received one of the letters,” the station’s report said.
“Dear neighbor. You have been identified by our group as being a Trump supporter. Your address has been added to our database as a target when we attack should Trump not concede the election,” the anonymous letter said.
“Milford police said the same letter was mailed to other homes that have signs supporting Trump’s presidential campaign. The department is now investigating and has contacted the state Attorney General’s Office,” the report said.
Two people in nearby Brookline have also received a threat, prompting Brookline police Chief Bill Quigley to alert U.S. Postal Inspection Service, advising the charges could be on “the felony level.”
FOX NEWS ON ELECTION NIGHT
They are definitely ready to roll. Fox News has shared its plans for election night — which appears to be turning into a something that rivals New Year’s Eve. Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will host the prime-time coverage, which will be loaded with “new, immersive 3D graphics and enhanced studio technology” throughout the broadcast.
It will feature “visual effects of a digitally-constructed White House,” plus high-tech graphics for “Balance of Power” and “Net Gain” indicators,; a presidential race scoreboard, predictability meters, popular and electoral vote counts, and a “video chandelier.”
This circular, electronic display device is 14-feet in diameter, features 528-square-feet of high-resolution graphics and “will function in tandem with the space’s video floor directly beneath it, displaying the latest generation of digital effects,” the network says.
The Fox News website will also be amped up for the big night.
“User tools include a state-by-state visual representation of the vote split along with past data, county-level presidential result maps with zooming functionality and historical data, margin of victory data with the capability to examine previous election cycles, and a FOX News ’dial’ page to track the predictability and probability of races for president, the Senate and the House,” the network advises.
AND NOW, A WORD FROM HOLLYWOOD
The list of high-profile, West Coast denizens who support President Trump is growing, so much so that multiple news organizations are now cataloging the phenomenon. People magazine, Fox News, BuzzFeed, Oprah magazine, CBS News and Breitbart News are among them.
Trump-friendly celebrities include the longtime support of Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight, of course. Fellow actor James Woods is another Trump fan, singing the president’s praises to some 2.6 million Twitter followers.
Other celebrities in the president’s corner include Roseanne Barr, Isaiah Washington, Kelsey Grammer, Kid Rock, Robert Davi, Dean Cain, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet, and country music icons Trace Adkins and Lee Greenwood. New to this population is rapper, TV director and entrepreneur 50 Cent, who this week expressed his dismay over Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden’s planned tax increases.
Republicans and conservatives should applaud the stars’ loyalty toward the president. For one thing, their Hollywood peers from cancel culture have unkind things to say about them. But they stay the course.
In addition, these stars command considerable social media, with hundreds of thousands of followers across multiple platforms. Consider that the aforementioned 50 Cent has 12.3 million followers on Twitter and 26.2 million on Instagram.
Actress Kirstie Alley tweeted to her 1.5 million followers, “I’m voting for @realDonaldTrump because he’s NOT a politician. I voted for him 4 years ago for this reason and shall vote for him again for this reason. He gets things done quickly and he will turn the economy around quickly. There you have it folks. There you have it.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 35% of U.S. adults say future presidential debates should features candidates “in person”; 62% of Republicans, 37% of independents and 13% of Democrats agree.
• 14% say the debates should be “virtual”; 6% of Republicans, 14% of independents and 21% of Democrats agree.
• 44% say future presidential debates “should not be held at all”; 26% of Republicans, 41% of independents and 59% of Democrats agree.
• 7% are not sure what future debates should be like; 5% of Republicans, 8% of independents and 7% of Democrats agree.
Source: The Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 registered U.S. voters conducted Oct. 18-20.
• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin. Enjoy the debate.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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