While there’s a lot to consider regarding Thursday night’s presidential debate, there were certain things that City Hall should be paying attention to.
By Denise Clay-Murray
To cover politics anywhere these days, you must in some ways be a masochist.
Now, what do I mean by that? I mean that instead of watching the track and field and gymnastic trials for the United States Olympic Team on Thursday night, something that I would have probably enjoyed because the possibility of 16-year-old Quincy Wilson becoming the youngest man to make an Olympic track team really interests me, I watched the first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle.
One word: Yikes!
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderated this debate, the first of two that are being spearheaded by television networks. Or at least that’s what they called it. Any resemblance between what Tapper and Bash did and actual debate moderation is purely coincidental.
For the most part, the debate consisted of President Joe Biden looking less than on top of things due to a cold and former President Donald Trump reminding us of why fact-checkers were the most important people in any newsroom from 2015 to the present. When the lies flow so strongly that they feel like they’re coming out of a water hose, you need all hands-on deck.
But now that the dust has settled and I’m here at my desk at my #BlackJob, my mission is to try and make it all make sense, especially for us as Philadelphians. Because we’re the biggest city in a swing state, all eyes are on us.
That’s proving to be a bit harder than usual. Mostly because there wasn’t a whole lot of there, there.
Sure, the candidates talked about things like the economy, the opioid crisis, and immigration, but they did so in a way that was more about the zinger, and in Trump’s case, the lie, than it was about giving you anything specific from a policy perspective.
For example, a question about childcare, and how the candidates would help families cover what’s become something that’s both necessary and extremely expensive, turned into a discussion on who was the worst president and golf handicaps, neither of which was relevant to the topic. While Biden touted his support for a childcare plan that would have included a childcare tax credit had it gotten through Congress in 2021 and 2022, Trump said even less.
Another topic that Philadelphians are concerned about and would have liked a coherent answer from the candidates on is the topic of opioid addiction. Considering how top of mind the impact of opioids on the residents of Kensington was during the 2023 mayor’s race, it’s a topic that Philadelphians really want answers for.
Shortly before the debate, the Supreme Court struck down the nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would have provided the states most impacted by Purdue’s marketing of the powerful opioid and the swath of addiction it cut with parts of a multibillion-dollar settlement. The problem most had with that settlement was the financial liability protections it gave the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma. The deal is now on hold.
But neither candidate addressed the impact of these drugs, their feelings about the Supreme Court’s decision, or anything related to the topic.
There was a lot of that.
It’s sad that an opportunity to talk about issues important to Americans turned into a referendum on anything but, but all we can hope for is that (a) the next debate will be more issues forward and (b) that the moderators will actually show up.
The next debate is scheduled for Sept. 10, 2024 at 9 p.m. This time, ABC News will be doing the honors.
Before wrapping up this week’s Hanging In The Hall, we’d like to offer our condolences to the family of former City Councilmember Donna Reed Miller. Miller served as the 8th District’s councilmember for 16 years before retiring in 2012. She worked on criminal justice issues, including the city’s Ban the Box law, which removed the question about jail time from the city’s employment applications.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, The Philadelphia Sunday SUN, the author’s organization, committee or other group or individual.
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