I’ve said this so many times on this blog, but to defeat the torrent of bullshit spewed by Gish Gallopers, you must attack the person doing said spewing, not their remarks.

This, of course, is a post about Donald Trump.

Marcy Wheeler remarks about Harris’ debate performance (boldface mine):

Kamala Harris appears to understand that. One of the most fascinating aspects of last week’s debate is how, with one major and two lesser exceptions, rather than directly disputing Trump’s truth, Harris instead rebutted his false claims by making Trump look weak…

But aside from Harris saying, “that’s not true,” or, “that’s a lie,” Harris usually doesn’t directly dispute any of the lies Trump tells. Often, she instead says things that suggest his incompetence…

The effectiveness of this approach is clear: Rather than saying Trump’s manufactured version of truth was false — again, setting up a clear dispute and inviting Trump’s supporters to simply dismiss her as someone opposing him because she hates him — she instead demonstrated, over and over, Trump’s weakness.

That recognizes an important fact about the cult-like following Trump has created: So long as his followers believe his strength, they will believe what he says as an article of faith. They believe in him, and so believe what he says.

But they believe in him because they believe his pose of being strong…

It’s only after they step out of a belief system based on a false belief that Trump is strong will people listen to you.

This is why the debate was bad for Trump (though it remains to be seen what that means for the election). By making the debate about Trump’s character (such as it is), the bullshit becomes irrelevant. The debate becomes an argument about the kind of person Trump is. Very well done.