I hope she has a voice somewhere between calm & collected and aggressive & shouty.
It so important for her to come across as strong, knowledgeable and as a leader.
DJT will be lucky to get 1 of those attributes…
That’s been the hope time and time again, and it never happens. Trump is stupid, but also an excellent con-man with a con-man’s instincts. No successful snake-oil salesman who’s been accused of deception and fraud has ever, in the history of snake-oil sales, been goaded into an unplanned rant in front of his marks.
Now 6-4 in favour of “same thread”. Also, an excellent suggestion about where watch-along starts. Not really necessary, but might be helpful for some.
Given the truncated timeline, three debates is probably not possible. But Harris was open to a possible second debate after seeing how this one goes, and seeing if Trump actually shows up.
But don’t you agree he’s better looking? 
I’m not sure I can take watching this live. I’m still scarred by the last one. I hope Harris talks to the camera and not to Trump or the moderators. She needs to make her case to the country. She needs to put forth concrete policies and plans that the audience can understand, such as child tax credit, start-up loans for small businesses etc. The viewers need to feel that she is talking to them and directly offering solutions rather than just rhetoric. If Trump goes on a tangent about child care costs, for example, she should just say something like “The problem with that suggestion is that it doesn’t actually address child care costs. Here is what my administration would do to help with these costs”. Under no circumstances should she say that Trump’s ramblings are confusing or won’t be effective. That leads her open to criticism that she is just not smart enough to understand his brilliant ideas. At most, she could point out that he didn’t actually address the question then immediately pivot to “Here is what we plan to do to fix this situation.”
My vote has already been counted for “same thread,” but I like the idea of adjusting the thread title to, “Trump and Harris agree to September ABC debate (Watch-along discussion starts at post X).” I’m sure that @Aspenglow can arrange that.
Bingo. That’s it right there. She needs to talk to the camera.
As some here know, I do some voicework occasionally. On one of my “refresher” courses, the instructor insisted we do video as well. (And me, with my perfect face for radio!) Okay, fine, we did. And what I learned!
Watch a sports game broadcast sometime. Bud and Dan (fictional names) are talking about the game at halftime. Bud asks Dan a question. Dan starts his answer looking at Bud, but then turns towards the camera, “making the viewer part of the conversation,” as my instructor said. Dan finishes with a question or comment that Bud must respond to, and Bud starts his response by looking at Dan, before turning to the camera, and again, making the viewer part of the conversation. It’s uncanny; for all that I watch sports, I never noticed it until I was made aware of it in that refresher class.
And that’s what Harris has to do: make the viewer part of the conversation. Oh, start by speaking to the moderators, sure (“Well, Mr. Muir, I’m glad you asked that question, because …”), but above all, then turn from them in order to speak to the cameras. And by extension, the American people. Let Trump talk to a nonexistent audience to his left, and then the nonexistent audience off to his right, as he loves to do, and let Harris address the American people, right into the camera. That’s going to get a message across.
If there’s no use for a new debate thread, fine. But if one dippydope writes, “See my post at #214”, they are drawn and quartered.
New debate thread please.
Seconded. (Fourthed?) [ETA: that should also clarify that this is the watch-along thread, reducing the chances that people will try to start six more of them, or have to check all the Harris threads looking for it.]
– I’m kind of dubious about the figures in the story I’m citing below. 70% of the USA is going to watch the debate?! There’s going to be 82% turnout for the election??
Good point, I think.
Of poll respondents claim it. Assuming that holds up, it means respondents aren’t representative of the general public, which is almost a given at this point.
What with Trump declaring that he will use the full force of the government to go after those that opposed him in this election, there is a lot more at stake for Kamala Harris And this debate.
Yeah, that’s the likeliest assumption I can come up with. That would be an astonishing turnout for the USA – 2020 was considered surprisingly high at 66%.
Alternatively, some of the people who said they were going to vote were just embarrassed to tell the polltaker that they probably won’t. People lie to pollsters! who’d a thunk it?
I’ve got pork in the crockpot for pulled pork sandwiches for the debate. I’m also making a pasta salad.
For those without television, will there be a streaming online source?
They can mean it at the moment and not follow through. People tend to answer questions about the future aspirationally.
Either way, taking the article’s conclusions completely literally isn’t a great idea. The numbers don’t remotely pass the sniff test.
But as a feeler for general trends and voter concerns, there’s still valuable data to potentially be gleaned.
Pretty much everybody. ABC as the host (plus Disney+ and Hulu), CBS, NBC, several local news stations, YouTube, plus no doubt others, will all have streaming options.
I have Direct TV but they are fussing with ABC and Disney so I guess I can’t watch it there. I’m not sure I can stand to watch it anyway. Just seeing and hearing trump hurts my brain.
Moderating:
After discussion with all P&E mods, we unanimously decided we will continue this thread for the watch along.
@Cervaise’s suggestion to add a post number to the thread title for ease of finding where the discussion starts is a great one, and I’ll make sure to do that when we get underway.
Thanks for expressing your preferences.
It’d be awesome if Kamala wore a shark pin or maybe a battery one. Or both.
I’m pretty sure MSNBC said the will be doing a simulcast so you could watch it there.
A simple windmill will suffice.