Whale Large Capital
  • Politics
  • World News
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Politics
  • World News
  • Business
  • Investing

Whale Large Capital

Politics

DAVID MARCUS: The Vance vs. Walz debate is best scored using boxing rules

by October 1, 2024
October 1, 2024
DAVID MARCUS: The Vance vs. Walz debate is best scored using boxing rules

Live coverage begins today at 8 p.m. ET for the .

The first rule of deciding who won a major political debate is that nobody wins a major political debate. There is no final score as the buzzer sounds, no final wink to be tiddled, it is a purely subjective matter. And that will be true of the vice-presidential debate between Republican nominee JD Vance and Democratic nominee Tim Walz.

That having been said, I’ve recently adopted a method of scoring debates from the world of pugilistics, that I think actually gives a pretty decent assessment of what most American voters see. 

My advice in picking a winner is to borrow the scoring system of a boxing match. The basic rules are relatively simple. In each round the boxer who wins the 3 minutes gets 10 points, the loser gets 9, unless there is a knockdown or it is overwhelming, in which case the round is scored 10-8. A tie is 10-10.

Obviously, a knockout ends the fight.

I first tried this approach last month with the Trump vs. Harris debate. And I wound up with Trump winning 157 to 150. It wasn’t the only reason I thought and wrote that night that Trump won the debate, despite overwhelming media insistence that girl boss Kamala had kicked ass. But it was part of it. 

And with polling showing no significant bump for Harris since their face-off and the fact that we’ve even seen some Trump swing state surge since their debate, my ostentatious declaration of a Trump victory looks a little less crazy today.  

The legacy news media, who wanted any excuse to hand Harris a W anyway, viewed the tête-à-tête as a kind of Lifetime movie in which Harris had finally spoken truth to power, but I find in most of America that narrative doesn’t have a whole lot of purchase. The voters want answers.

That’s where boxing scoring comes in. If openings, closings, and each question, are the ’rounds’ of the debate, you wind up with about 15. See what I’m saying? The incremental 10-9 or 10-8 scores of each, mirror the nuance of how swayable voters watch the event.

The basic philosophy behind boxing scoring is that the primary job is to survive the round, so if you manage that, you get an automatic 8 points, winning the round, and can only bump that up by at most 2. 

One could argue there is a fundamental unfairness here, that if I am 40 percent better at landing punches in a round than my opponent, I only get a 10 percent point advantage in scoring, but that is also the beauty of the system. Fights aren’t just about math.

This actually tracks very well with how political debates work. 

The audience, which is to say the voters, do tend to see each question or issue as one round, and if Walz can get a 10-8 on abortion, or Vance can on the border, that goes a long way towards the kind of 7 point win I gave Trump over Harris. 

Another way to think of this is that 90 percent of Americans likely already know who they are voting for, only 10 percent can be swayed, and boxing’s unique scoring system almost perfectly corresponds to this. 

Eighty to 90 percent we are just scoring as a wash.

There is, of course, the chance of a knockout, but these days, that chance seems remote. Back when Reagan said ‘There you go again,’ or Obama, in retrospect wrongly, told Romney the 1980s wanted their foreign policy back over fears regarding Russia, the possibility of something near consensus on the question existed.

Those days are no longer with us, if they aren’t over forever.

Nobody really wins a debate, but we can still score them, we can still pay close attention to who is and isn’t actually answering the questions, and that has a lot of value. 

So give a shot, grab a pad and paper, if you still have those, and just jot down your score for each question, 10-10, 10-9 or 10-8. Like a Ouija board your political leanings might push the pen a bit, but even so, you might be surprised by the results.

As Mike Tyson once put it, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Let’s keep a close eye on the flying rhetorical hands of Tim Walz and JD Vance.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Elon Musk compares Newsom to ‘The Joker’ after voter ID requirements banned in California
next post
US readiness plays ‘significant’ role in fending off Iranian attack on Israel

You may also like

Musk, Ramaswamy huddle with lawmakers in quest to...

December 5, 2024

Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel hits Haifa for...

October 7, 2024

Trump’s fourth week in office could include meeting...

February 10, 2025

Zelenskyy pointedly thanks Trump, America for Ukraine support...

June 25, 2025

Bernie Sanders, AOC and other anti-Trump progressives haul...

April 16, 2025

How Mike Johnson rescued Trump’s tax agenda from...

April 13, 2025

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says Trump lives in ‘disinformation space’...

February 19, 2025

House Republicans call for investigation into Obama-appointed judge...

July 1, 2025

5 wild ways Democrats have embraced the Monty Python...

December 4, 2024

WATCH: AOC leaves door open for 2028 presidential...

April 29, 2025

    Subscribe today to receive exclusive access to all our retirement secrets and income strategies, including special financial news and updates from our experts. From time to time, our newsletters feature valuable insights and analysis on the latest financial trends. Don't miss out on these exclusive updates – join our subscription to stay informed!


    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.



    Latest

    • State Department says 59,000 tons of food assistance are in motion after reports of incinerated aid

      July 18, 2025
    • Pentagon to probe Microsoft’s use of Chinese engineers on sensitive defense systems, Hegseth says

      July 18, 2025
    • GOP senator reveals the ‘dirty’ secret to Trump’s Make America Healthy Again movement

      July 18, 2025
    • Russia says NATO threatens WWIII in latest deterrence plan that could take down Kaliningrad ‘faster than ever’

      July 18, 2025
    • Pro-Israel congressman accuses Tel Aviv of ‘mocking’ Trump with ‘suicidal’ strikes in Syria

      July 18, 2025
    • House Republicans face mounting resistance as third ex-Biden WH aide pleads Fifth Amendment

      July 18, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (721)
    • Investing (661)
    • Politics (4,977)
    • World News (3,213)
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact us
    • About us

    Disclaimer: WhaleLargeCapital.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2024 WhaleLargeCapital.com | All Rights Reserved