In other words, the
Gish Gallop?
My only consolation is that most people seem to have made up their minds already.
That's exactly what Trump was doing. It's a frustrating tactic and hard to counter, doubly so because Biden is a stutterer and has to compose himself before he speaks.
There are ways to counter it, but it's tough. One is to let Trump rant for his two minutes then to pick the overarching thread of what he said, or repeated elements, to address or question. There is no way to counter every inane, fallacious, specious thing the galloper says without looking scattered and weak.
One thing is Trump kind of overdid it. He looked like an idiot. Yes, his base will think it's a victory, but they would have thought anything was a victory, or whined about how Biden was just so mean if Biden managed to hand him his ass.
Biden missed some chances to get digs in, as others have pointed out. He needs to be coached to be more on the lookout for those moments. Like pointing out the empty stands at the Tulsa Rally, not to mention the covid cases that emerged after (including Herman Caine).
But a big thing is he needs to hit home over and over again that Trump is supposed to be an astute businessman, but he lost so much money that he didn't pay any taxes. He needs to point out how he whines about people not liking him in the polls. And a perfect opportunity, when Trump said that only old people with preexisting conditions die of Covid, to say, "People like you?" Note that Obesity
is a pre-existing condition that greatly reduces the risk of dying of Covid (there was a paper on this in
Science just this week). Trump is obese, or close to it. He also pretty clearly fears getting Covid-19, whether he admits it or not.
Pointing out what an asshole he is, or what a liar, or how racist won't sway Trump's base, but it's possible that playing up how weak and phony Trump's alpha maleness really is might demoralize a few of them enough they forget to turn out.
Something of grave concern that can't be dropped is the fact that Trump has made it very clear he won't accept the results of the election if he loses and is preparing to make the preposterous claim that the mail in ballots will be corrupted and unreliable, because he knows there's a good chance the mail in ballots will favor Biden more.