Also canceled my NYT subscription today and told them why and threw 
at them in my message.
Good on you!
Biden will not quit. For one, it looks bad for the party. It’s as if they lost to Trump already. A new candidate or even Harris would have a hard time getting anywhere in a few months.
Why would Trump agree to more debates? (ETA: or show up at the one he has agreed to?) He got more video clips out of this one than he can possibly use. He doesn’t need more.
^This (my bolding). Even before the debate, this race was going to be close. Every vote matters, and a lot of those votes belong to people who rarely pay much attention to politics or to the news in general.
They won’t be watching the news. But on whatever they do watch, online or on television, they are going to see endless clips of Joe being unable to finish his sentences–standing there with his mouth open–saying “we finally beat Medicare.” They will see those clips over and over and over again.
They won’t hear any of the arguments and excuses (‘he had a cold!’) we’re using to comfort ourselves. They will hear only a very old guy stumbling and trailing off; they will see only a very old guy standing there with his head down or gazing off somewhere with a slack mouth.
Or as DSeid put it:
The ‘I’LL FIGHT TO THE LAST’ attitude works in some situations. But this isn’t about fighting voters–it’s about convincing voters. And the ones who are most important to convince, won’t hear any of Biden’s speeches. They’re not that interested. The impression they take away from June 27 and from all the clips of it they’ll be seeing in the next 4+ months is what they will have. What on earth could Joe do, given his current physical state, which would change it?
He already agreed to it. September 10th on ABC.
And your theory here is that Trump is a man of his word?
My theory is that he loves standing in front of a camera and being on TV and having people look at him.
And there’s no way he could get that other than by giving Biden a chance to perform better than he did June 27–thereby making all the headlines about Biden rather than about Trump?
Biden has nothing to gain. The “debate” is not a debate if Trump is involved.
Here is Trump looming behind Hillary on stage:
Posted this also in the “Stop Panicking!” thread:
At least one conservative group is prepared to go to court to keep a Biden replacement off the general election ballot in some states.
Because he’s an attention whore who’s bloated on the praise he’s getting for the first and an arrogant asshole who can’t fathom Sleepy Joe ever improving. Why would he pass up more opportunities to kick Biden’s ass again and get more fawning press?
I think I’ve said this already, but: because Trump knows that if Biden improves even a little bit in a second debate, ALL the headlines would be about Biden. NOT about Donald’s Glorious Self.
And I don’t think that Trump would ever consider that a possibility. That’s loser talk. If Biden is as old and feeble as he keeps saying, why would he get any better?
I don’t think you’re wrong about Donald’s thought processes. But someone in his circle will likely suggest the possibility to him. And ‘getting all the headlines’ is SO important to him that he might err on the side of ‘maybe skip a chance to be on-camera in case…’
If it’s put to him by trusted aides as “Your odds of being reelected go up significantly if you find an excuse to not debate again, sir,” then I think he’d skip the next one - naturally while insulting Biden as pathetic, already badly beaten and simply not worth his time.
I think there is a conspiracy theory ready for analyzing. CNN fails to moderate so that Biden fails. Then they can run a dozen anti Biden stories.
CNN now running Trump claim…
…that senile Biden will start WW III
Well that’s just ridiculous.
Truly ridiculous. Biden can’t start a war by himself. Nor could Trump, for that matter—but Biden is surrounded by people with integrity, whereas Trump will surround himself with people who’d do anything for a buck (or who are currently being blackmailed by Vlad, who has evidence of their…proclivities. Including, most likely, Donald himself).
NATO countries have a good reason to be concerned about that debate. The concern of a Trump return. They are quite aware that Trump is no friend to NATO, and quite a dear friend to Putin.
I agree. It’s obvious to many that an actual, bona fide miracle would be necessary to avoid Trump if Biden remains the Dem candidate.
And Trump getting back into power would be genuinely catastrophic for much of Europe.