The Morning After, The Voters React …

It appeared the newspapers, Tuesday morning, had gone to press without realizing Harris would be the clear winner of last night’s debate. In almost all of the majors, too, it was noticed that Trump’s name was first. I received one message lamenting that the debates were an expensive “waste of time.”

Another from a Black teacher, J.G., calling out the print media and electronic media: “They’re crucifying her. And it’s sad. I don’t care if a President is female, male, old, Black, mixed, or White. I just need to be confident they will get the damn job done and be fair. For ALL American citizens. Trump had his time, and as Harris said, he was “fired.”

“Why is he even allowed another chance? Harris has to be perfect, and they will still find a problem. America was okay with Harris being the Vice President. Now it’s got real, and some are not ready for her to be in this position.

“The youth will inherit the mess we created. Sad! Notice Trump called the VP ‘She’ most of the time. No respect. He didn’t even look at her when he spoke. Harris, instead, addressed him by name and looked at him when she spoke.

Just before 8:00 am outside Penn-Moynihan, we noticed that the Chase billboard blast, “Champions Evolve.” Although it was not, it could have been referencing Kamala Harris.
Our Time Press (OTP) stopped three people, including a former Obamacare think tanker (for five years), on his way to D.C. for a reunion of former compatriots. He gave Kamala high marks.

We purchased six newspapers. It didn’t matter what the headlines on NYC’s newsstands said. Or didn’t say. According to two cashiers Harris scored. They likened the debate to a boxing match, with Harris knocking out her Goliath in one blow. One woman told Our Time Press that Lawrence O’Donnell, her favorite newscaster at her favorite station, MSNBC, always stopped to pick up literature before heading to his destination.

“Next time,” she said, “I will ask him what he thought about the debate.” She also revealed that the Wall Street, who had just left before we arrived, favored Harris as the victor, too.
Buoyed by it all, Our Time Press stopped a few people for comments.
Everyone except one guy shared that Harris was “more Presidential” than her opponent. He told us, “She has her flowery remarks, but is she qualified?”

An executive at the Moynihan breakfast sandwich stand opined about men who won’t vote for Harris because she’s a woman. “Just don’t get it. They’re into that masculine strength thing and can’t admit that he’s an idiot.”

F.L., an Asian immigrant from Shanghai, told us: “The amazing thing about New York is the people here are from all over the world.

“I can’t vote but watched the debates anyway.

“But, in this country, it all boils down to this: you only got two choices. I don’t like anything that hints of racial bias. If I could vote, I would give my vote to Vice President Harris.”

Between 11:30 am and 12 noon, we ran into a Yale professor on Amtrak who, point by point, explained why Harris won the debate. She was en route to a lecture at Williams College and was viewing the debate on her laptop.

Then, there was the Rensselaer County-based, Harlem-born, happily retired former Wall Street trader, now occasional Uber driver (for the fun of it). He revealed up front that he was a stone-cold Republican, then in 10 glorious minutes broke the two-party system down to a common denominator (Look for elaborations and more stories in Our Time Press next week.)