LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE: NOT ENOUGH TRUMP-BASHING?

I keep thinking about two tweets I saw during last night's debate, one from a well-known right-wing #NeverTrumper and one from a pollster who has predicted that Democrats will win the 2020 election:

The fact that the Democrats aren't on rhe air and in digital hammering the living fuck out of Donald Trump right now with paid advertising boggles my goddamn mind

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) October 15, 2019

Well @kkondik, funny that you should mention that.

The answer is yes. And the failure of the Ds to make Trump the central theme of their debates as the GOP made Obama theirs is just 1 of the many manifestations of their inferior strategic approach to campaigning. https://t.co/IK67FacgmH

— Rachel "The Doc" Bitecofer 📈🔭🗿💪 (@RachelBitecofer) October 16, 2019

Wilson tweeted well before the debate and wasn't referring to it, but I see the two tweets as related. Why aren't Democrats pounding away at Trump? Why aren't they talking more about Trump, putting out the case for the prosecution in ads and debates?

The rebuttal to Wilson and Bitecofer, I guess, is that Democrats ran a midterm campaign that emphasized the party's own ideas on important issues, and it worked. Voters don't need the case against Trump spelled out. Most voters already have strong opinions on him, and for a majority of Americans, those opinions are negative.

Nevertheless, it would have been nice to hear something like this last night:

Erdogan owns Trump. MBS owns Trump. Putin owns Trump. American needs a new kind of Independence Day.

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) October 16, 2019

There are dozens of issues on which the president could be attacked. But maybe it's not necessary. The flip side is that Trump is all over television and the Internet attacking Democrats and glorifying himself. His campaign is spending a lot of money. On impeachment, no one on the anti-Trump side is spending at a level that even approaches Trump's. And yet poll after poll shows that Americans support impeachment -- the latest is from Gallup. So maybe the ads aren't working -- they're preaching to the Trump minority and not winning anyone else over. Maybe the Democrats' focus on issues -- which partly seems like the Dems' choice and partly seems like a defensive reaction to right and centrist voices accusing them of having no ideas other than anti-Trumpism -- is working. Let's hope so.

*****

I had a thought last night when I heard Anderson Cooper's ridiculous final question.

Last week, Ellen DeGeneres was criticized after she and former President George W. Bush were seen laughing together at a football game. Ellen defended their friendship, saying, we're all different and I think that we've forgotten that that's OK that we're all different.

So in that spirit, we'd like you to tell us about a friendship that you've had that would surprise us and what impact it's had on you and your beliefs.

It's hard to imagine Republicans being asked a question like this -- the media generally demands comity only from Democrats -- but if there were GOP debates this year and the candidates got this question, how would Donald Trump answer it?

I assume he'd be stumped and, narcissist that he is, he'd say his most surprising friendship was with himself. He's been known to say that his top adviser is himself, so I assume that's the answer he'd give. There are more logical answers (Kanye?), but I think Trump is too self-involved and wouldn't be able to summon up a name. Thoughts?