#1 in a heartbeat. You do not think his strategy was to interrupt Biden any chance he could

Biden should dictate #3 or refuse to debate

Trump's strategy definitely was interrupt as much as possible. Every debate is another opportunity for Trump to elicit the confused old man gaffe that he clearly is trying to elicit from Biden. If Biden sees no advantage in debating, then I think Trump has given him a clean opening to refuse to do any more debates.

If there is another debate, a more controlled format surely would lead to a more substantive discussion. The question I am asking is whether a format with less potential for chaos would help Biden more than Trump. I don't know the answer.

But I have to believe that last night's debate helped Biden more than Trump. Dispositionally, Trump might prefer the format where he can interrupt at will. But as a matter of fact, that format might benefit Biden, because it shines a bright light on Trump's boorishness and lack of presidential demeanor.

Option 2 is clearly the worst option for Biden because it would turn the next debate into a referendum on whether Trump is receiving fair treatment from the media. That post-debate discussion would play better with potential Trump voters than the discussion that followed this debate.

This is not actually a policy. The "best economy we have ever had" is propaganda btw. In absolute terms, yes, because our economy hasn't literally shrunk over the last 3 years, it is bigger than it's ever been, which was also true for all previous presidents since Hoover. And if we look at Trump's full first term, economic growth will likely end up lower under Trump than any president since Hoover. So, congratulations? In terms of how good the economy actually is, I'll definitely take the faster growing economy of the Clinton years and before. During the three years previous to the Trump presidency, annual GDP growth average 2.3% and over the first three years of Trump's presidency, 2.5%. Meanwhile, under Clinton's administration, GDP growth averaged 3.9%.

This is a deflection. Reasonable people don't blame Trump for the coronavirus existing. Instead, they blame him for doing a bad job of fighting it. This is why initially Trump got a boost from the virus, and it was only during the summer when it became clear how many Americans were dying relative to other countries that Trump's approval went down.

Yes, before we entered a severe recession and thousands of black people died from a pandemic, we had very low unemployment and rising wages since 2013. This was good for black people as well.

Huh? This makes no sense.

Little known fact that Obama was actually President for the last three years and Trump is just a talk show host criticizing the government for their poor performance. Also, the GOP is just full of BS on heathcare. They just lie over and over about the ACA, promise they'll replace it, and 8 years later they've still failed to even propose a legislatively viable alternative.
What does this have to do with Trump's lack of a coherent policy on climate change? His approach is to just pretend it doesn't exist and torpedo any chance for international cooperation to defeat it.

Biden's in kind of a tough position. If he goes too far down in the gutter--he just looks like more trump. Even though I think tons of people(myself included) are dying to see it.

It would be amazing to see trump get super tilted. A few things seem to hit his red button pretty consistently(poor dumb etc couple other things). I think Biden does have the stones to stick the knife in--but is probably getting tons of advice to be more even keeled.

Correct advice. Don't try to out-troll a troll - they are willing to go much further than you are typically and they're better at it.

Trump isn't capable of defining things narrowly and getting pinned to a definition. He is not Clinton.

A big part of his charade is about defining things so broadly that words start to lose meaning. It's a big part of how he has stayed out of jail so far.

Instead of getting pinned to a definition of White Supremacy that could possibly apply to anyone that he perceives to be his base, he prefers to give a vague condemnation against white supremacy in general and, "just to be sure, I don't mean you 'Proud Boys.'"

His response is entirely consistent with his brand and instincts. No concessions and never define anything lest your opponent holds your definition against you.

Someone else may be able to pull it off... but not Trump. If he tried it, he'd just be perceived as weak by his base.

5,000 would have died from COVID if technocrats were running things.

Which is it: Biden is a senile cipher for the left or an autocrat. It can’t be both.

No, I don't think he was acting. He is (for reasons not related to this election) one of few American politicians I have seen a bit of, and those emotions shining through are in character.

He has a certain natural flow to his public speaking (to my ears at least, maybe I'm weird). It's not the Obama-style "bit too crisp and perfect"-delivery, but it's not the Trumpian "I didn't actually study for the book report"-delivery either. There is some improv and conversational speech patterns in there, which will invariably leave some room for emotions to shine through.

He also has. as I understand it, a stutter speech impediment. So he probably depends on taking measured pauses to not trigger it. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Trump was actively trying to trigger a stuttering response, an audience can be very unforgiving towards stuttering.

Most of this is correct, although I don't see why his instincts would lead him to define white supremacy broadly. Also, no one is requiring him to write a tight dictionary definition. All he has to do is come up with some mealy-mouthed bullshit like, "I don't want the support of anyone who hates other people solely because of the color of their skin or their country of origin." Then he can prattle on about how great his supporters are, how they love America, how they don't want to see their cities burned to the ground, etc. For any Republican, this should be the easiest rhetorical needle to thread in the world.

In any case, I'm not interested in finding the perfect response for Trump. I more was commenting on how this is evidence that he is a ****ing idiot and not nearly as good a retail politician as he thinks he is.

I agree with all this actually. I do think there is a narrow band where a different politician could pander and still shirk (GW Bush and Clinton both managed to do this for the most part). I just think Trump is incapable of playing in that lane because 1. he lacks the intellectual capacity for nuance (no way he puts together a coherent sentence similar to the one you did) and 2. he doesn't know how to be anything but an *******.

This is one of the main issues with people who support Trump but don't have the balls to admit why... His messaging is so garbled and all over the place that his supporters tie themselves in knots trying to land on a position that is deemed "acceptable". The current one is, I guess, that Biden is a whacko leftie and also an autocrat. It makes no ****ing sense of course, but words are pretty meaningless to trump fans at this stage, it is just a steady collection of pre-canned fox news soundbites to be parroted as required.

lol Trump slappies, you're more radicalized than Fox News

I believe the term is strategery

You seem to be conflating technocrats with business owners.

100,000 inaccurate ballots sent out in NYC.

Trump has a point on the disaster mail in voting is going to be this year...

Also, Wallace asked a very good question. Will you wait to declare victory until it is verified? Trump is going to have a large lead on Election day, before the mail in ballots are counted. He might simply declare victory. Then it will be up for the Democrats to prove him wrong. The person who has to do the proving is at a strategic disadvantage.

So you know he wasn't or you're still being a self righteous bore ?

Sounds like the post office needs to STAFF UP, amirite or amirite, Smudgy?

So up you're aggression frequencies against the biggest LAG at the table ?

The easiest way to beat Trump is offer some popular policies.
For some reason the Dems have been refusing to do this for the last couple election cycles.

Maybe death and dementia will eventually fix the problem.
Like the common cold did with the Martians......

Board of Elections are also not equipped. DeBlasio ripped them over this recent error and many will not be equipped to count the volume of mail in ballots.

If you want your vote to count, vote in person!

Pretty silly to criticize Biden for not running on your popular policies because he is....running on more popular policies. Here is popular support for M4A and the public option from January:

Wanting to see it is different than thinking it's the best strategy

True. But tbh, it was cringe worthy enough.

Just get to the push up contest already !!

Biden is only proposing a Public Option for people who qualify for Medicaid.

Does your poll reflect that ?

Also, do you have any polls showing how everyone wants less social security and Medicare benefits ?

Thanks.

grunching a few hundred posts.

Context request. Does Trump inspire confidence or inspire you as a leader when expressing his point of view and stance on various issues? More or less than Biden?


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LOL @ bundy, et. al.

Moderator on live national broadcast asks the President of the United States if will denounce white supremacists. President mumbles "sure" and immediately gaslights about leftists.