Donald Trump won the second debate with Joe Biden, but not everyone learned about it.
Immediately after the debate ended, CNN was quick to announce that Biden won by a 53% margin, and so that this advantage would not seem too insignificant to the audience, which was recently inspired that Sleepy Joe is ahead of Terrible Donnie by 500 quintilliards percent, clarified that for Trump only 39% of viewers voted.
As you can easily count, 53 + 39 = 92. Where the other 8% disappeared remains a mystery - perhaps, of course, they voted for the presenter of the debate, the pretty Christine Welker.
But in reality it is completely unimportant, because in reality, and not in the picture that CNN is trying to impose on both the American public and the world media, Biden lost the debate.
To be convinced of this, you need not blindly copy and paste the results of the CNN poll, in which, as usual, were mostly Democrats and the intelligentsia disliking the president, but analyze the debates themselves, as was done, for example, on the ZeroHedge website, taking the time to parse each story by bones.
I must say that the Democrats who control the presidential debate commission did everything to make life easier for Biden and complicate the current president.
In a tradition rooted in the 1970s, the last presidential candidate debates are devoted to foreign policy issues.
Since it is precisely in foreign policy that Trump can show quite real achievements (at least the same "Abrahamic Accords" in the Middle East or the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan), and Biden against his background can only bleat about strengthening US influence in the world (read - about new wars), then this is exactly what the president was not allowed to do.
Days before the Trump-Biden meeting, the commission said the topics of debate would be global warming, leadership and the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump's headquarters sent a complaint to the commission, and the topic of China and North Korea was added to the program.
It was the only concession that Trump and his team managed to wrest from the commission, which, by a strange coincidence, is controlled by Democrats and their sympathizers.
During the debate, which lasted more than an hour and a half, presenter Christine Welker interrupted Donald Trump 30 times and Joe Biden only twice.
Nevertheless, according to the ZeroHedge portal, Trump won three rounds in the discussion of six main topics (problems of American families, racial problems in the USA, climate change), one round remained with Biden (leadership), two opponents drew (national security, COVID -19).
Trump won on points.
At the same time, computer analysis of the debate on October 22 using artificial intelligence showed that President Trump surpassed his rival, showing excellent results on five of seven topics (AI divided the topic of health, in particular, Medicare and COVID-19).
Analysis by VoiceVibes showed Trump to be victorious in discussions of climate change, American race, leadership, homeland security and health.
And Biden, according to the program, was the most persuasive about COVID-19 and immigration.
“Keep in mind that our program does not attempt to gauge the content or merit of their statements or their policies, but rather the credibility of their tone and vocal delivery,” commented Debra Cancro, CEO of VoiceVibes, on the embarrassing results for Democrats.
Artificial intelligence could be challenged because Trump cornered Biden on immigration with a very awkward question, “Who built the cages?” Referring to the pens for illegal immigrants on the border with Mexico.
The cages, in which the detainees were held for days or even weeks, were built during the Obama presidency, when Biden was vice president, so Sleepy Joe chose to jump off the dangerous topic by muttering, "Let's talk about something else," and began at length talk about the suffering of children separated from their parents.
During the racial debate, Trump punched Biden hard, reminding the audience of the former vice president (and then a senator) who was involved in the 1994 anti-crime law.
This law, passed under Bill Clinton, led to mass plantings of blacks.
Now, of course, hardly anyone would dare to submit such a bill to Congress, but in the mid-90s, tolerance had not yet flooded the minds, and some Democrats, defending the bill, declared that it was aimed at protecting society from "super predators." ...
By superpredators they meant the leaders of the street gangs, but the African-Americans decided that the whites called them all by race.
Trump Biden remembered this, saying: “He has been in the government for 47 years, but he hasn’t done anything.
Except in 1994, when he insulted the entire black community by calling them super predators.
He said so: superpredators.
And they have not forgotten it.
1994, crime law, superpredators! "
After this blow, Biden staggered, figuratively speaking.
But he did not lose the debate then, but closer to the end, slipping on one very dangerous topic for him.
In preparing for the debate, Biden and his staff naturally expected the president to focus primarily on Hunter Biden's laptop plots and built a line of defense.
Not letting Trump talk about Biden Jr.'s laptop (“a laptop from hell,” as the president put it) was the main task of the presenter - and she coped with this task with an excellent mark.
But no one expected Trump to save his main blow at the end when it came to energy.
“We're going to have the best economy in the world, and you want to kill that economy, you want to dump our oil industry in a hole.
What about fracking?
He wants to ban fracking! "
Trump said, pointing at Biden.
And tired Biden, as boxers say, swam.
He then objected that he was not against fracking, then admitted that he wanted to ban fracking in the federal lands, then declared that he would have stopped the oil industry in its current state, "because it pollutes the environment."
He stumbled and looked unconvincing.
And Trump looked confident and absolutely in control of the agenda.
But what is fracking and why is it so important?
Thousands of feet beneath the Appalachian mountains lies the oil and gas formation known as the Marcellus Shale, the largest known shale gas accumulation in the world.
This formation extends under the entire northeast of the American continent, but comes closest to the surface in Pennsylvania.
Fracking, aka hydraulic fracturing, is a technology for extracting hydrocarbons from shale rocks.
They are fractured by a fluid pumped under pressure into deep fractures of the rock, which clears the passage for gas emitted from the shale.
Shale gas has made Pennsylvania power engineers richer in recent years - in 2019, more natural gas was recovered from wells in the state (and there are almost 8,000 of them) than in any previous year.
Pennsylvania has become the second Texas in America's energy market.
Fracking advocates stress the economic benefits of replacing coal with natural gas, which burns cleaner and produces less carbon dioxide when burned.
Opponents - primarily supporters of green energy - argue that fracturing pollutes water, causes noise and air pollution, causes earthquakes and affects human health.
Biden really often spoke out in favor of prohibiting the use of fracking technology - it doesn't matter, because of his convictions or because he needed to please the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party, in which not only Bernie Sanders plays the main roles, but also Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez (an ardent apologist for green energy, even suggesting the destruction of methane-emitting cows).
And the refusal from hydraulic fracturing will lead to the loss of 20 to 50 thousand jobs in Pennsylvania alone, and in general will seriously undermine the welfare of this state.
In February this year, a Morning Call / Muhlenberg College poll showed that 42% of Pennsylvania residents oppose a frac ban, 38% support a moratorium, and 20% found it difficult to answer.
Half of the respondents said the industry provided a "powerful boost" to the state's economy, while 44% said drilling poses a serious health hazard to the state's residents.
And a recent CBS News poll in August found that 52% of registered voters in Pennsylvania opposed fracturing, while 48% were in favor.
The same poll says 45% think Trump will be better at dealing with "the challenges of oil and gas exploration" (42% think Biden will do better).
Now, after the debate, those numbers are likely to change - and certainly in Trump's favor.
It’s too early to say that Trump won Pennsylvania, but it’s undeniable that the third debate solidified his position in this most important wavering state.
"The election is likely to be decided by the three northern industrial states that broke the back of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign," writes political columnist Dan Baltz of The Washington Post.
These states are the heart of the so-called Rust Belt: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
It is to these three states that all the attention and main efforts of the Trump headquarters will be directed in the last week before November 3 - there will be three main campaign rallies of the incumbent president.
According to official opinion polls (I already wrote in the article "On the Old Rake" about how much they can be trusted), in all these three states, Biden is still ahead of Trump.
But even the Democrats themselves are not sure of the accuracy of these estimates, and the importance of the three industrial states for the entire campaign cannot be overstated.
A preponderance of even several hundred votes here can play a decisive role in the fate of the entire country.
“Here's what he really wants to say: he (Biden -
KB
) is going to destroy the oil industry.
Will you remember that, Texas?
Will you remember that, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma? "
- Trump said at the last minute of the debate.
As you know, the last word is best remembered.
And there is no doubt that the states, whose prosperity is based on the production of shale oil and gas, heard and remembered this.
Whether they will draw conclusions from what they have heard, we will find out very soon.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.