Election 2020

[Ken]

I don't have a strong feeling whether he will debate or not. What I do believe is that if he thinks it will hurt him, he won't do it.

Hey did you know you passed 5000 posts?

[nots]

I don't have a strong feeling whether he will debate or not. What I do believe is that if he thinks it will hurt him, he won't do it.

There is no way the world’s biggest narcissist is giving up 90 minutes of airtime.

[Kevin Seitzer]

There is no way the world’s biggest narcissist is giving up 90 minutes of airtime.

You do have a point there.

[ironfist]

There is no way the world’s biggest narcissist is giving up 90 minutes of airtime.

You're talking about the guy who last time around skipped the debate moderated by Megan Kelly, who worked for his propaganda network at the time.

[nots]

You're talking about the guy who last time around skipped the debate moderated by Megan Kelly, who worked for his propaganda network at the time.

Happy to make an avatar bet with you as well. Terms are listed above.

[gcstomp]

i hope trump debates. i hope we get back to some normalcy.

here is the but. I dont think trump can make a good faith showing in debates of debating, as in: scheduling, showing up, answering questions posed to him.

if he shows, he will demand some kind of tribute to show, as if he should be rewarded off bat for doing what should be part of job of election cycle. he will then simply ignore questions and answer with his own evil ernie voice inside, caw cawing about deep state, witch hunt, and low grade insults to all he perceives as a threat. all the while trump will be dropping hints of how even if he loses it wont really be a loss, and threatening mass violence, coded with his "some say, so I have heard". this river does not run deep, trump is the sludgy oil slick to the entrance to hell.

[TranaGreg]

i hope trump debates. i hope we get back to some normalcy.

here is the but. I dont think trump can make a good faith showing in debates of debating, as in: scheduling, showing up, answering questions posed to him.

if he shows, he will demand some kind of tribute to show, as if he should be rewarded off bat for doing what should be part of job of election cycle. he will then simply ignore questions and answer with his own evil ernie voice inside, caw cawing about deep state, witch hunt, and low grade insults to all he perceives as a threat. all the while trump will be dropping hints of how even if he loses it wont really be a loss, and threatening mass violence, coded with his "some say, so I have heard". this river does not run deep, trump is the sludgy oil slick to the entrance to hell.

I've been thinking this too ... but I also think that there's gotta be a strategy to counter that, to emphasize how absurd & paranoid & dangerous all that would be ... I generally agree with the "there's no such thing as bad press", but if spun carefully this could be his achille's heel ... or am I being naiive?

[nots]

i hope trump debates. i hope we get back to some normalcy.

here is the but. I dont think trump can make a good faith showing in debates of debating, as in: scheduling, showing up, answering questions posed to him.

if he shows, he will demand some kind of tribute to show, as if he should be rewarded off bat for doing what should be part of job of election cycle. he will then simply ignore questions and answer with his own evil ernie voice inside, caw cawing about deep state, witch hunt, and low grade insults to all he perceives as a threat. all the while trump will be dropping hints of how even if he loses it wont really be a loss, and threatening mass violence, coded with his "some say, so I have heard". this river does not run deep, trump is the sludgy oil slick to the entrance to hell.

It’s certainly possible you are correct, but I doubt that happens. In 2016, IMO, he lost all 3 debates to Hillary, but he debated as Romney and McCain did. Certainly he evaded some questions (they all do—watch tonight for affirmation of that) but wasn’t much different than any other debate I have ever watched ( the walking around thing was a little weird).
I think a lot of this is concern trolling by the left, but I could be wrong.

[Kevin Seitzer]

It’s certainly possible you are correct, but I doubt that happens. In 2016, IMO, he lost all 3 debates to Hillary, but he debated as Romney and McCain did. Certainly he evaded some questions (they all do—watch tonight for affirmation of that) but wasn’t much different than any other debate I have ever watched ( the walking around thing was a little weird).
I think a lot of this is concern trolling by the left, but I could be wrong.

I don't understand your concern trolling angle to this. I don't think televised debates are nearly as important an electoral tradition as disclosure of tax returns, for instance. I wouldn't begrudge Trump avoiding debates if he thought they would hurt his chances. However, if Democratic supporters are counting on the debates as sure to provide an avenue to publicly demonstrate Trump's inferiority to the Democratic candidate, I think they will be disappointed. Either because Trump will be a better debate matchup than they think, or if in fact the debates look like they will be a disaster for his candidacy, he will simply avoid them, and he will pay very little electoral price for that.

[nots]

I don't understand your concern trolling angle to this. I don't think televised debates are nearly as important an electoral tradition as disclosure of tax returns, for instance. I wouldn't begrudge Trump avoiding debates if he thought they would hurt his chances. However, if Democratic supporters are counting on the debates as sure to provide an avenue to publicly demonstrate Trump's inferiority to the Democratic candidate, I think they will be disappointed. Either because Trump will be a better debate matchup than they think, or if in fact the debates look like they will be a disaster for his candidacy, he will simply avoid them, and he will pay very little electoral price for that.

Concern trolling might not be the most accurate phrase but I am struggling to find one that captures my exact meaning. I guess given that Trump wasn’t afraid to debate Hillary, who as much as I loathe her is no intellectual light weight, I disagree with Stomper’s hypothetical on the way Trump will act in 2020 debates. I think most folks, both left and right, would agree that Biden isn’t the intellectual equal of Hillary so I have a hard time imagining he would duck him. Especially given his love of the bright lights and TV in general (and himself specifically, lol).
To me, it just reads like ‘look at this cowardly gutless thing Trump might do because it supports my narrative’. You’re right though, it isn’t concern trolling. I need a better phrase.

[Teenwolf]

The media is such garbage. I just skimmed like 8 debate breakdowns declaring the winners and losers. 3 declared Bernie a debate loser. 5 ignored him entirely. Every single one hyped Klobuchar. I heard so many fucking idiot pundits insist that there's a Klobuchar surge happening in the early states. It's a complete lie. She had one good poll, ever, hitting 10% in Iowa a week ago, still well below the delegate threshold. Latest Iowa poll showed it was an outlier, back down to 4%. Yet we still hear the garbage lie that she's "surging at the right time" over and over. Totally pathetic. She averages 2.0% in NH, 2.0% in Nevada, and 1.3% in South Carolina... but because she hit a 6.3% average in Iowa, based on the one skewed result, we are then forced to swallow the media bullshit about it. Unreal.

I thought Biden had his strongest debate overall, but his answer on whether or not he would kill blue collar jobs in order to meet climate change targets, he answered "yes." Sounded like a carbon copy of Hillary, "when I'm President we're gonna get rid of all the coal jobs, right Steve?..." You guys think that answer wins back the industrial midwest against Trump? I don't. Sanders would have been more deft, talking about his federal jobs guarantee as part of the green new deal. But oh well... folks like Joe, even though his entire base is geriatric scared low info voters, they have the best chance vs Trump because they're so much less deplorable than Trump voters. That electoral strategy sounds like it could never fail! I'm sure Biden could turn out more independents and young voters than Clinton did... what a joke. I still believe Sanders can win both Iowa and NH, and build the necessary momentum to win. But it sure is hard, fighting the entire dismissive media constantly.

[B-Fly]

Everyone was good last night, and I think several candidates not on the debate stage are very good options, too. I really don't think there's a lack of good options in the Democratic field. And of course they are all so much better than Trump. If anything, there are still far too many good options in the field, which makes it hard for people to decide, which makes some people feel like there isn't a good enough option, because no one is jumping out at them as an obvious choice over the others. I am having a very hard time ranking my preferences at this point.

[Gregg]

Everyone was good last night, and I think several candidates not on the debate stage are very good options, too. I really don't think there's a lack of good options in the Democratic field. And of course they are all so much better than Trump. If anything, there are still far too many good options in the field, which makes it hard for people to decide, which makes some people feel like there isn't a good enough option, because no one is jumping out at them as an obvious choice over the others. I am having a very hard time ranking my preferences at this point.

So are you feeling better about your 60% Trump comment?

[Teenwolf]

I thought Warren was mostly very strong, and I think at this point it's a good thing for Sanders for Warren to stay strong and collect some delegates early.

However... can she shut the fuck up about her goddamn selfies? What does she think the selfies say about her? I think they show she's a photo op candidate. I don't think that means a hell of a lot to real people who weren't involved in the photo. She's trying to show her populism, able to rally a movement behind her, and obviously targeting young voters to "pokemon go to the polls"... I think her dedication to taking selfies is a very poor strategy.

[B-Fly]

So are you feeling better about your 60% Trump comment?

Not really, because I don't think this election will be about the specific Democratic candidate for most voters, so the relative strength or weakness of the Democratic nominee isn't what I expect to be deciding in the head-to-head with Trump.