This is in the eye of the beholder. To me Biden seems steady and stately, and he’s saying the right things. He’s presidential even.
Trump is incoherent on the best day. Have you ever watched him when he’s not on teleprompter, and sometimes even when he is? It’s a jumbled mess that jumps from one topic to the next in thought fragments. People tie themselves in knots trying to parse his meaning. He meant this. He was referring to that. It should stop. He says what he says and everyone should see it. He’s a bumbling, muddled, doddering man.
I had not heard the plank and speck reference before. I like it.
While Trump cannot say anything intelligible eveb with a teleprompter.
One thing that disturbs me about Trump is that when he leaves office he will still not be prosecuted for his many crimes since his will successfully argue that his dementia is so advanced that he is unfit to stand trial.
“I’m told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let 'em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about. I’ll tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal.”
at least it’s a “oops, my bad” instead of “I never said that.”
If Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren had no cause to raise questions about his mental state, I don’t see why you or I are in any better position to.
To the subject of the thread: I can see both sides here. I guess it depends whether you think Trump’s responses to direct questions about coronavirus, police brutality, or the economy will move the needle any. He’s lied and blustered about stuff before, but these are subjects most Americans will have very invested opinions on, and it’s not like he’s not going to be lying anyway in every TV ad. Actually having him talk about it live could make an impression.
Anyway, I’m not sure it’s politically wise of Biden to refuse to debate. I realize the good reasons, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s DONE. I think it may do more harm than good.
You just know Trump the Taunter will spend the debate trying to find something to get under Biden’s skin. My fear is that he’ll succeed, Joltin’ Joe will get mad and go off track… and say something that will hurt him in the election.
Now, if Joe smokes a joint beforehand and stays mellow while Trump goes off the rails, that’s what I’ll want to watch.
It would obviously be a horrible mistake for Biden to avoid the debates. He will look weak and Trump will crow about it every day. Trump is a weak debater who was comfortably beaten by Hillary. Biden is past his best but still an OK debater and he will beat Trump too.
This is in contrast to Trump, who is a better orator than Pericles, Cicero, Demosthenes, Daniel Webster, Abe Lincoln, and Alex Jones all put together. Everybody says so . (Did you know Daniel Webster was a National Republican? Not many people know that.)
Biden is going to have to debate Trump. There’s no way out of that.
However, as others have said, this is the time for unorthodox maneuvers during the debate. Biden doesn’t have to just respond to everything Trump says at face value. He has a number of other options.
After a particularly egregious remark by Trump, he could simply shake his head and calmly say “bullshit.” Trump is not going to expect to have any profanity used against him. HE’S the one who has broken that taboo of saying things like “we’re going to bomb the shit out of ISIS” in official speeches, and he thinks HE’S the only one who CAN break that taboo. I think he’d be quite rattled if Biden simply paused for a beat and said - calmly but loudly - “Bullshit.”
He could get personal. I think it’s common knowledge that Trump idealizes his father. It’s perhaps one of his only examples of relatable humanity. Biden could say at some point, “your father was a scumbag con man, and you are a scumbag con man. Your whole family are scumbag. con. men. What do you think about THAT?” Trump, again, thinks that HE is the only one who can go after other peoples’ family members - he’s done it time and time again. He is not expecting anyone else to flip the script on him. It would throw him off his game during the debate.
Biden could deliver a scathing monologue against Trump - calmly and methodically - and wait for Trump to inevitably interrupt him. Upon being interrupted, he should simply continue to deliver the monologue. Think of it as a filibuster. Trump would just keep trying to talk over him, but Biden would have to bulldoze straight ahead with the monologue and pretend that Trump’s not even there, so audiences would just hear Trump attempting to get a word in edgewise again and again and failing. It would be highly aggravating for Trump because, again, HE thinks HE’s the only guy who can get away with talking over other people.
These are just a few tactics that Biden could employ. The common theme here is to attempt to undermine Trump’s debate performance by sabotaging the rhetorical techniques that he typically uses, or turning them against him.
How certain are you that Trump will debate? In January he had a lot of complaints about whether the commission was fair, and how biased the 2016 debates were, etc. He intimated then that he might not debate.
In fact, people crawl up to him all the time and ask (obsequiously) “Sir, did you teach Plato and all those ancient German philos. . .pelosi. . .thinkers how to think good?”
Wow. A record.
A fucking hour and a half fucking 502 timeout. (pretty well almost right after Lantern coommented)
'the fuck was I - oh, yeah -
These.
Notwithstanding the fact that no other dem candidate would have even come close to standing up to, dealing with, and curbstomping right back at Trump in such, yes, ulitmately farcicial debates, Biden is definitely feared most by Trump for debating becuase he knows that any smear that he throws Biden’s way, the latter will so easily be able to throw whatever smear right back at him, twofold, not to mention the pandemic throwing a wrench in the gears of Trump’s election team trying to define Biden in the negative light they had hoped to.
And as I mentioned in some other thread, it will ALL come down to the blue collar voters and fence sitters in MI/Wi/PA, viewing these debates. They need to be reached. Biden is the only dem candidate that would suit their optics, no? An intellectually dominant Warren would be percieved by this enlightened bunch as some finger-waving schoolmarm, amd conversely, all other dem candidates would have come across to these trogs as effete or a woman’s libber in a debate scenario. (heh, rememeber that phrase?) WE BADLY NEED THOSE VOTES. Joe would address that situation way more effectively than anyone else would.
I’m not giving Biden a hard time here, I’m just saying that it’s actually hard to be rude when it’s not your natural instinct.
Most people want to get along and give eachother the benefit of the doubt. That is exactly what Trump exploits. To actually use that technique, that would be hard for someone who isn’t an asshole.