PA Political Digest -- Post-Debate hullabaloo, 5 Questions With...on why parents are a tougher crowd than juries
Sharp analysis of PA politics & campaigns writ large
Welcome to PA Political Digest — I’m your guide here, veteran GOP political consultant Christopher Nicholas. Thanks to those of you Liking and Sharing PPD, and upgrading to a Paid subscription. And we have PPD Merch now too.
For you today in our post-debate End of the Week post:
Did you notice? there was a debate last night that is shaking up the presidential race
5 Questions With…today features federal judge turned college president John E. Jones III.
This Week in PA focuses on the crucial job our County Election Administrators do.
Did You Notice?
You must be 35 to be president. How about an amendment you cannot be over 75?
- A note PPD received from one political wag BEFORE the debate last night
Did you watch the debate last night between 46 and 45? CNN said 48 million people tuned in. Did you mute it at times and follow along on Twitter, which I recommended earlier in the week as a release valve if it all became just too much.
Here are some comments we received from loyal PPD readers after the CNN debate:
Biden can’t handle another term and this debate was an abject disaster. Trump didn’t win - Biden lost and he lost big.
Trump’s performance wasn’t stellar and was filled with falsehoods…however Biden’s inability to effectively rebut them was glaring. The August Democratic Convention will be crucial.
The substance of this debate, such as it was, won’t be the take away. The optics of a weak and bumbling Biden will be.
Last night Biden’s chances for re-election were destroyed. Trump, though certainly not a strong debater himself, appeared by juxtaposition to be eminently more vibrant, competent and presidential.
America now has a presidential candidate who during a debate declared, ‘I did not have sex with the porn star.’
Why didn’t the Biden campaign acknowledge he had a cold before it started?
The president was way over prepared and it showed.
Both men seemed more comfortable counter attacking.
Tump went after Biden for not firing anybody. And there was an extended back and forth on club golf championships and handicaps, which was not on my Bingo card.
‘Malarkey’ made its first appearance at the 30-minute mark. And if you’re looking for any Biden bright spots, well, bon chance…though his abortion response, his hit on Trump not wanting to visit the WWI memorial in the rain, and his closing statements were all fine.
Trump scored best because he managed to comport himself calmly for the bulk of the debate. He adroitly brought a lot of his answers back to the immigration issue, and also had a good closing statement.
Now what?
So what are Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. and other Democratic congressional candidates thinking this morning? Well, like Casey, those in competitive races are going to spend the next week explaining why they think Biden should stay in the race, or not? That obviously puts them all on the defensive. They will all also need to say if they still endorse him and want him campaigning for them.
Gov. Josh Shapiro admitted Biden had a bad night but that it didn’t change the fact that Trump was a bad president. Not sure how much efficacy that’ll have in the days ahead.
Likewise, Biden’s bumbling performance emboldens GOP candidates at all levels. And unlike regular fall debates, there isn’t another one of these until September, so no chance for Biden to quickly bounce back, as Pres. Obama did in 2012 after his very bad performance in his first debate against Mitt Romney.
It seems as though many folks were expecting to see ‘State of the Union speech’ Joe Biden, but remember, that was a speech, prewritten mostly, and not a debate.
As with the Trump hush money verdict, be careful about buying into the results of any post-debate snap polls. It’ll take a week for those who did not watch the debate to catch up (or not) on the media coverage of it. Good polls will break out results by those who actually watched the debate, and those that did not.
Team Biden said the hour after the debate was its best fundraising hour of the entire race since his re-election announcement.
Next up: Trump’s sentencing hearing in Manhattan on July 11, his VP pick, the GOP Convention and Democratic Convention…
5 Questions With…
Today we feature John E. Jones III, federal judge turned college president, who on the bench ruled Intelligent Design unconstitutional and same sex marriage constitutional.
I first met Judge John E. Jones III when he took the helm at his alma mater, Dickinson College, in 2021. He okayed Dickinson hosting the Jan. 2022 Republican gubernatorial debate I helped put together (with 13 candidates!). He had just retired as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pa. (The Middle District is one of three judicial districts here and a part of the Third Circuit, which includes PA, DE, NJ and the Virgin Islands.) Before taking the bench, Gov. Tom Ridge appointed him as chairman of the PLCB. In 1992 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the former 6th District as the GOP nominee.
This Week in Pennsylvania
This week is a special PA Counts show on TWIP featuring Election Administrators talking about the challenges of their job in the post Act 77 world, with Vote By Mail (VBM), etc. Join host Dennis Owens as he interviews Thad Hall from Mercer County and Sean Drasher from Lebanon County.
Watch TWIP Sundays across the state:
Phila. Phl17 1:30pm
Pittsburgh KDKA+ Ch. 19 Noon
Harrisburg ABC27News 10am (also 7pm Sat.)
Scranton WBRE Ch. 28 11am
Johnstown WTAJ Ch. 10 6:30am
Erie JET-TV Ch. 24 10am
You may also stream the show here — the new show loads around Noon time on Sundays.
Please contact us if you’d like info on sponsoring an edition of PPD. And I am on Twitter/X at Eagle63. If you enjoyed this post please hit that Like button below as it helps others find us on Substack. We’ve all earned a nice weekend — enjoy.