It's Wednesday, September 11, 2024.

I'm Albert Moeller and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Well, last night's debate, they called it a debate,

was probably not a major turning point in the 2024 election,

but it might not be a footnote either. First of all, it wasn't a

debate. This is just a matter of presidential history now. It's a matter of

electoral history in the United States. You look back, for instance, at the

Lincoln-Douglas debates in the 19th century and you consider what took place

there in Philadelphia last night. We're not even talking about the same activity, not even remotely the same.

When you look at Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, and remember that was for a Senate election,

not for a presidential election, the most famous of these debates, you were really

looking at two candidates setting out massive worldview systems and intricate policy proposals,

and they clearly clashed on some of the most basic issues

not only legislatively but morally in the United States particularly over the

question of slavery and then now the nation should deal with the issue of slavery.

But what we were looking at last night in Philadelphia was a political event, no doubt,

it was a political event.

It was a media event.

No doubt that turns out to be part of the problem in modern

presidential debates or what are called modern presidential debates. There is

no serious exchange of ideas. There is no serious engagement of worldview. At times there is something

that can approximate a serious statement about policy, but that being said the

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