ErrorsOfSeanHannity_20200806 <– PDF
Mr. Sean Hannity, nationally syndicated talk show on the Fox Network, continued his usual tactic of making fundamental errors of logic today. In his introductory monologue, Mr. Hannity described former Vice President and prospective 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden has having poor cognitive abilities, and asserted that those “will be on the ballot in November”. Mr. Hannity also downplayed Mr. Biden’s ability to engage in debates with President Trump.
Mr. Hannity is incorrect on both counts. Let’s first consider the debate issue. There will not be any in-person debates this year, since the Democrats can claim that doing so would be dangerous to the health of both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden as well as the Democratic Party moderators, owing to the Wuhan virus. So, the Democratic Party is likely to demand that the debates be held by video. Here are the rules that the Democratic Party will insist upon:
- Mr. Trump will be standing in the Oval Office, photographed from high above, at a distance to make him look small, and permit the audience to verify that he has no notes or assistants.
- Mr. Biden will be at his home in Delaware, seated behind a podium, photographed close-in so that the audience cannot see the teleprompter, his notes, or his assistants.
- Mr. Biden will be asked only easy questions (“Are you opposed to racism?”).
- Mr. Trump will be asked difficult ones (“Why haven’t you achieved peace in the Middle East?”).
- The usual 60 second response time will be changed to 30 seconds, since Mr. Biden’s attention span and coherence length seem to be limited to about 35 or 40 seconds (based on recent appearances).
- Mr. Biden will be provided with the questions two weeks in advance, and will also be provided with the focus-group approved answers; all he has to do is read them from the teleprompter. (His assistants will make sure he matches up the question with the answer in the correct order.)
- Mr. Trump will have no knowledge of the questions he will be asked by the Democratic Party moderators.
Should Mr. Trump reject any of these demands, the Democratic Party will cancel the debates on the grounds that (obviously) Mr. Trump is trying to steal the election by reverting to the traditional racist and/or fascist methods of conducting Presidential debates. But note that these debate demands will apply no matter who the Democratic nominee is, not just for Mr. Biden.
Regarding the Democratic ticket, let’s not forget that the Democrats only want power. But they are smart enough to know that Biden can get elected only if he is successful in the debates. Even with these rules, it does not seem likely that Mr. Biden can get through the first one unscathed. So, the Democratic Party has a choice to make: replace Biden either before or after the first debate. There are two options. First, they could break their own internal electoral rules (not a problem), open the (remote-controlled) convention, and select a new slate altogether. The second is to let Mr. Biden fail in the first debate, allow him to be a sacrificial lamb, and use that to justify removing him from the slate. The next step would then be to elevate his running mate to be the nominee with a new person selected as the running mate. In either case, Mr. Biden will not be on the ballot in November, except to the extent that some states will not have time to re-print the ballots.
Who will end up on the Democratic Party ticket? Keep in mind that Mr. Biden has adopted most of Senator Bernie Sanders’ platform. A logical choice would be Bernie Sanders (voter energy) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (plenty of cash). A second choice would be Senator Sanders (voter energy) and former First Lady Michelle Obama (personal popularity). I do not think Senator Kamala Harris is relevant since she is known only in California, which is going to vote Democratic anyway.
