Joe Biden taunted Donald Trump several times during Thursday’s debate.  Biden called Trump a “convicted felon,” a “sucker,” and a “loser.”

It appears as if one (or more) of the people who prepared Biden is a Saul Alinsky fan.  In Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals book, rule number 5 is “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.  There is no defense.  It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule.  Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”

It also appears as if Donald Trump is aware of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.  Trump (for the most part) ignored Biden’s ridicule, Biden’s most potent weapon.  Trump proved Alinsky wrong and found a defense for ridicule: ignore it, don’t acknowledge it, never respond to it.  That action visibly infuriated Biden  and turned Biden’s reaction to Trump’s advantage.

Rules 2 and 3 (“Never go outside the expertise of your people” and “Whenever possible go outside the expertise of the enemy”) also worked in Trump’s favor.  Biden, the consummate professional politician, no doubt surrounded himself with similar people who couldn’t possibly possess the knowledge to go outside the expertise of Trump.  Nor could his people go outside their own expertise since they, as demonstrated by their policies, have or had no expertise.

Trump followed to a T Alinsky’s rules about what not to react to.  All he then had to do was smile and let the bumbling fool make an ass of himself.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.