It is probably an understatement to say that the speeches during which each major party’s presidential candidate accepted their nominations differed dramatically.
Former president Donald Trump’s was long, often diverging from his prepared comments to offer a rambling aside about himself or his campaign. Vice President Kamala Harris’s, by contrast, was tightly crafted and delivered — and, thankfully for people staying up on the East Coast, relatively short.
You are by now probably broadly familiar with the rhythms and rhetoric of the two candidates (or, at least, one of them). As such, you should have no difficulty with the quiz below, in which you are presented with a series of quotes from the candidates’ speeches. Can you identify which candidate offered which sentiment?
var pbresults = [0, 0]; const pbqs = [ { text: ‘Happy anniversary, [spouse]. I love you so very much.’, correctAnswer: ‘Harris’, correctMessage: ‘This was Harris acknowledging her husband on their wedding anniversary.’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was Harris acknowledging her husband on their wedding anniversary.’ }, { text: ‘We’re dealing with very tough, very fierce people. They’re fierce people and we don’t have fierce people. We have people that are a lot less than fierce except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things, then they’re fierce. ‘, correctAnswer: ‘Trump’, correctMessage: ‘Here Trump’s complaining about the Biden administration (and making false claims about the 2020 election).’, incorrectMessage: ‘This is Trump complaining about the Biden administration. How did you get this wrong?’ }, { text: ‘One must ask, why exactly is it that they don’t trust women? Well, we trust women. We trust women.’, correctAnswer: ‘Harris’, correctMessage: ‘The vice president was talking about access to abortion.’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was the vice president talking about access to abortion.’ }, { text: ‘We were beating every country, including China by leaps and bounds. Nobody had seen anything like it. We had no inflation.’, correctAnswer: ‘Trump’, correctMessage: ‘This was Trump describing his administration (and making a false claim about inflation).’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was Trump describing his administration (and making a false claim about inflation).’ }, { text: ‘We must now come together, rise above past differences, any disagreements have to be put aside and go forward united as one people, one nation, pledging allegiance to one great, beautiful — I think it’s so beautiful — American flag.’, correctAnswer: ‘Trump’, correctMessage: ‘Perhaps the mention of the beautiful flag gave it away?’, incorrectMessage: ‘Honestly, the mention of the beautiful flag should have given it away.’ }, { text: ‘We can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.’, correctAnswer: ‘Harris’, correctMessage: ‘Here, Harris was contrasting her view of immigration with Trump.’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was Harris contrasting her view of immigration with Trump.’ }, { text: ‘I’ll never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists. I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un.’, correctAnswer: ‘Harris’, correctMessage: ‘Harris contrasted her rejection of autocrats to Trump’s embrace of them.’, incorrectMessage: ‘Harris was contrasting her rejection of autocrats to Trump’s embrace of them.’ }, { text: ‘Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation.’, correctAnswer: ‘Harris’, correctMessage: ‘This was Harris setting the stakes of the presidential contest.’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was Harris setting the stakes of the presidential contest.’ }, { text: ‘Thank you, Kid Rock, sometimes referred to as Bob.’, correctAnswer: ‘Trump’, correctMessage: ‘Kid Rock made an appearance shortly before Trump spoke.’, incorrectMessage: ‘Kid Rock performed at the Republican convention, not the Democratic one.’ }, { text: ‘Sir, it would be our great honor to take MS-13. We love them very much. We love them very much, sir. We’ll take them back.’, correctAnswer: ‘Trump’, correctMessage: ‘This was Trump describing a call he claims to have gotten from a foreign leader.’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was Trump describing a call he claims to have gotten from a foreign leader.’ }, { text: ‘Nothing will sway us, nothing will slow us, and no one will ever stop us. No matter what dangers come our way, no matter what obstacles lie in our path, we will keep striving toward our shared and glorious destiny.’, correctAnswer: ‘Trump’, correctMessage: ‘This is indeed one of Trump’s closing messages.’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was one of Trump’s closing messages.’ }, { text: ‘It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on earth: the privilege and pride of being an American.’, correctAnswer: ‘Harris’, correctMessage: ‘This was one of the phrases Harris used to close her speech.’, incorrectMessage: ‘This was one of the phrases Harris used to close her speech.’ } ]; function createQuestionElement(question, index) { console.log(‘Adding question #’ + index); const questionDiv = document.createElement(‘div’); questionDiv.className = ‘pbqbox’; const questionText = document.createElement(‘p’); questionText.innerHTML = (index + 1) + ‘. “’ + question.text + ‘”’; questionText.className = ‘pbqtxt’; questionDiv.appendChild(questionText); const harrisButton = document.createElement(‘button’); harrisButton.textContent = ‘Harris’; harrisButton.className = ‘pbhb pbbtn’; harrisButton.addEventListener(‘click’, () => handleButtonClick(index, ‘Harris’)); questionDiv.appendChild(harrisButton); const trumpButton = document.createElement(‘button’); trumpButton.textContent = ‘Trump’; trumpButton.className = ‘pbbtn pbtb’; trumpButton.addEventListener(‘click’, () => handleButtonClick(index, ‘Trump’)); questionDiv.appendChild(trumpButton); const messageDiv = document.createElement(‘div’); messageDiv.className = ‘pbmsg’; messageDiv.id = `message${index}`; questionDiv.appendChild(messageDiv); return questionDiv; } // Function to handle button clicks function handleButtonClick(index, selected) { const question = pbqs[index]; const messageDiv = document.getElementById(`message${index}`); const rterms = [‘Right. ‘, ‘Correct.’, ‘Yep. ‘, ‘Yes. ‘]; const wterms = [‘Nope. ‘, ‘Wrong. ‘, ‘Incorrect. ‘, ‘No. ‘]; var pickr = Math.floor(Math.random() * 4); if (selected === question.correctAnswer) { messageDiv.innerHTML = ‘👍 ‘ + rterms[pickr] + ‘‘ + question.correctMessage; pbresults[0]++; pbscore(); } else { messageDiv.innerHTML = ‘👎 ‘ + wterms[pickr] + ‘‘ + question.incorrectMessage; pbresults[1]++; pbscore(); } } function pbstart() { console.log(‘Starting…’); var questionsContainer = document.getElementById(‘pbquestions’); pbqs.forEach((question, index) => { const questionElement = createQuestionElement(question, index); questionsContainer.appendChild(questionElement); }); } window.onload = setTimeout(‘pbstart();’, 1000); function pbscore() { var tot = pbresults[0] + pbresults[1]; var totxt = tot + ‘ quote’; if (tot > 1) { totxt = totxt + ‘s’; } var text = ‘You have tackled ‘ + totxt + ‘ and gotten ‘ + pbresults[0] + ‘ correct.‘; const scorediv = document.getElementById(‘pbscorebox’); scorediv.innerHTML = text; }
Perhaps you found this quiz to be unexpectedly easy. That is probably less a function of our quote selections than it is of the wide difference in style between the two candidates.
It might also be the quote selection.