Brief comment on the final presidential debate

 Just a quick comment here.

First, if we are being subjected to this, I am grateful for the fact that the mute button will be used.  The debates are, and will always be worthless.  They should be canceled, now and forever.  Yet, at least the Commission has recognized the necessity of muting Donald Trump.  (Fine, Biden gets muted too, but we know why they're doing this.)  However, my real comment here is about the strategic bind that Trump has created for himself.  In the first debate, he went full asshole.  Never go full asshole.

It clearly backfired.  Overwhelmingly, the reaction to Trump's behavior was negative, and the Commission was even forced to change its procedures to enforce the rules that Trump refuses to follow.  However, what does he do now?  His whole schtick is to act like he is the man in charge by acting like rules don't apply to him.  So, if he acts differently, the reaction will be that he caved.

He then looks weak.

If he doesn't change his approach, we hear him trying to interrupt with his mic muted.  But, we only hear him through Biden's mic.  That's going full asshole, but doing so... weakly.  Worst possible image.

Does he wait until the two minutes are up, and then revert to full asshole?  Still cowed.  Then we talk about how Trump got shackled.  Weak.  Also... an asshole.

He has locked the post-debate discussion into a question of how weak he looks based on whether or not he has caved, and how much of an asshole he is compared to the first debate.

Never go full asshole.