2020 Presidential Debate

I agree with Nancy Pelosi -- Biden shouldn't demean the tradition of presidential debates by allowing the orange ass clown on the stage. He hasn't earned that level of respect.

And besides Joe isn't a great debater. Nothing to gain here.

Kamala Harris, on the other hand, would absolutely DESTROY Mike Fucking Pence and should do so if he's foolish enough to let it go forward.

Looks like the debate is still on for Tuesday.

Two bumbling old white men.  Can't wait.

One bumbles. The other interrupts and talks over Joe. What a farce.

Chris Wallace should have had a mic mute switch.

Chris Wallace is defying expectations by giving Trump a hard time.

Lots of discussion after the debate about what they can do differently in the next two to prevent Trump from breaking all the rules.

Apparently a mute switch would have to be agreed upon by both campaigns, and Trump’s campaign would never agree to that because it was his whole debate plan. Obfuscate the facts, interrupt, and attack.

Here’s my suggestion. Make the debates virtual. Don’t let the candidates see or hear each other. Ask them the same questions, give them two minutes to answer, then cut to the other candidate. They never address each other anyway. Let them both address the American public with their answers.

Nicole Wallace made the point that both candidates have been "debate prepping" for weeks. Trump's logorrhea (Rachel's excellent vocabulary) wasn't a fluke or a spur-of-the-moment going off script. It was his debate choice. He intended all along to break the rules and destroy the chance for a sober debate of the facts.

Chris Wallace should've simply ended the debate after ten minutes. "If you can't follow the rules your campaign agreed to, we can't have a debate." The problem is, nobody says no to the Orange Ass Clown. He needs to be disciplined, like a puppy chewing the furniture.

Headline on the VP debate: Pence attracts flies.

Just like something else that stinks.

The Debate Commission has announced the next Prez Debate will be virtual, since one candidate is infected with a deadly disease.  This is only smart and logical.

Trump immediately said he would not participate.  This is only Trump and Trump.

Joe should go ahead with the debate without him.  Debate an empty chair if necessary.  Use the free airtime to put his vision for American across to American voters.  Without interruption.  Without distraction.

Act presidential, IOW.

BBC wrote:

Mr Trump said the move to virtual was to "protect" his rival.

Mr Biden's campaign said he would participate. The Democrat's campaign said he "looks forward to speaking directly to the American people".

But speaking to Fox Business Channel on Thursday, Mr Trump said: "I'm not gonna waste my time on a personal debate. Sit behind a computer, ridiculous. They cut you off... I'm not doing a virtual debate."

CNN wrote:

President Donald Trump's refusal to accept a new plan for a virtual second presidential debate reflects how such an event would likely limit his capacity to dominate the stage and trample the rules in a bid to launch a comeback against Democrat Joe Biden.

The decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates to hold a remote encounter next week follows Trump's diagnosis with Covid-19 after the White House became a raging hotspot and is an ironic consequence of the President's failure to protect himself and those around him amid a pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Americans.

The apparent loss of the next face-to-face encounter with Biden likely makes it even more difficult for the President to use the second debate to engineer a turnaround in a race that increasingly appears to be trending in the direction of the former vice president who is widening his lead in the polls.

"I heard that the Commission a little while ago changed the debate style and that is not acceptable to us," Trump said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business.

"I beat him easily in the first debate ... I'm not going to do a virtual debate. I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate -- that's not what debating is all about, you sit behind a computer and do a debate -- it's ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want."

The last part of that sentence hints at Trump's biggest objection to the new format -- he would be less able to impose his personality on the showdown. In the first debate last week, the President constantly interrupted his opponent and the moderator Chris Wallace. Although his behavior appears to have alienated many viewers, he seems convinced that his characteristic rule breaking helped him win the debate.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Here’s my suggestion. Make the debates virtual. Don’t let the candidates see or hear each other. Ask them the same questions, give them two minutes to answer, then cut to the other candidate. They never address each other anyway. Let them both address the American public with their answers.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee debated challenger Loren Culp virtually, last night, immediately following the VP debate.

It went fine.

In fact, I learned a lot about both candidates.  Culp is an idiot -- which I had suspected but he confirmed it quite handily.

Rachel had Kamala Harris on tonite, the first time since she became the VP nominee. She asked her a bunch of the normal expected questions, then paused and laughed, and said she'd kick herself if she didn't ask: "Could you see the fly on Pence's head during the debate?"

Kamala smiled and looked down. She thought a moment, then said, "Yes I could see it. But let's not dwell on that. Let's move on to the issues facing American voters."

Harris and Maddow exchanged looks. Then both burst out laughing.

It was a wonderful moment of shared humanity, in the midst of a disastrous year.

I'm not watching either of the town halls tonite, in lieu of a debate.  I can't imagine anything newsworthy will come out of either one.

Unless Trump collapses on stage. That's a possibility. But not worth enduring projectile verbal diarrhea.

On this last debate, Biden is just smiling and looking at the ceiling. It’s all he needs to do.

Joe would be better off not speaking. He’s flustered and speaking incoherently.

Trump is still speaking nonsense and lies, but that’s what he does. Joe has been portrayed as a well-thought out and coherent speaker, but he’s blowing that image.

Neither candidate impressed me.  They both sounded like confused old men.

Mrs NoCo has a proposed constitutional amendment, an age limit.  Nobody over 65 can run for any public office.  Automatic retirement at 65.

The BEST THING that could happen for the country is for Joe to win, then step down in his first year due to health concerns. 

There's no understanding the DNC.  In 2016 they chose Clinton over Sanders, when Sanders was CLEARLY the superior candidate and had much more voter interest.  As a result many Dems sat out the election because it was obvious their votes didn't count.

In 2020 Biden was CLEARLY the weakest candidate in a field crowded with an embarrassment of great candidates.  Again the DNC chose the establishment candidate, the least popular candidate, the candidate LEAST likely to motivate voters.  If Trump hadn't been such an utter trainwreck he wouldn't have stood a chance.

Therefore the ONLY WAY a candidate outside the party machinations of the DNC can gain the office is through succession.  I wish Joe no harm, but he's in a unique position to break the stranglehold that old-line politics has on the Democratic Party.  Kamala's not ideal, but she's younger & smarter & more motivating than Biden by a country mile.

The DNC didn't pick the candidates. Sanders lost the primary against Hillary quite handily, and did worse against Biden. He has some enthusiastic supporters, but most Americans won't vote for him.