It's been really hot in Los Angeles the last few days and it's made hotter, at least for me, with everyone talking incessantly about how hot it is. The heat doesn't bother me much but it does tend to send me into weird sleeping patterns which is why I'm up writing this at four in the morning.
Assuming there actually is a Presidential Debate tonight — this year, we take nothing for granted — I probably won't watch live. My guess would be that an exercise like this is less about actually making someone decide for Candidate A over Candidate B than it is about ramping up or down their enthusiasm for their chosen candidate. In November, there will be a lot of folks who will think they know who they want to vote for but not with such certainty or determination that they'll actually do whatever is involved with casting a vote for that person. And really, I'm fine with someone preferring Trump as long as they don't actually cast ballots.
Living in a state that Trump couldn't win if he ran unopposed — in fact, which he definitely wouldn't win if he did run unopposed — is nice in a way. I imagine it's hellish in a place like Pennsylvania with a barrage of TV ads, radio ads, billboards, robocalls and maybe even people ringing your doorbell and trying to get you to see things their way. I wouldn't buy a box of candy from a stranger who came to my doorstep so I'm certainly not going to change my political views or my religion there. I once subscribed that way to a service that promised to keep mosquitoes away from my home. Later, I was tempted to subscribe to a service that kept the mosquito service away from my home. They turned out to be the more prevalent pests.