There are some interesting contradictions in Trump’s claims of how well he did in Tuesday’s debate. CNN has a whole article on how Trump’s allies are scrambling to do damage control after his disastrous performance. But as the article says,
The former president did what he always does when presented with unfavorable political facts — deny them. He declared on Fox News on Wednesday that he had “one of my better debates”
But if he did so incredibly well, why is he threatening hell and damnation on ABC News?
Trump also launched an attack on ABC News, claiming the debate was “rigged” and faulting moderators who fact checked him for setting up a “three-to-one” tag team against him …
… Adopting a more sinister tone in his interview with Fox, the former president accused ABC of putting on a “rigged deal” and warned officials “ought to take away their license.” His comments were ominous considering he’s vowed to wage a presidency of “retribution” if he is elected to a second term in November
And I really enjoyed this comment:
Trump’s narrative that he was thwarted by two TV anchors sat uneasily with his claim on stage that he’s such an intimidating figure that US enemies were simply scared of him…
Sorry, @solost – I hadn’t seen your latest post when I wrote mine. We’re on the same page. 
He reminded me of the Gwynne Dyer story of the stressed-out Jordanian general, his entire front being rolled up by Israeli armor, mentally reverted to his comfort zone and gave all his attention to a single artillery placement. Trump went back to the stand-up comedian he loves to be.
Of course Harris herself fell back to the politician’s game of answering the question you want to answer, not the question you were actually asked. Not exactly the “Gus Fring poisons the entire cartel” moment we’ve been waiting for. But at least it was the moment we’ve been waiting years for, since Obama dragged him at the correspondents’ dinner: somebody calling out that grotesque momser right into his boiled face.
To piggyback: your emphasis is on the coming out to vote for someone or the other, and that is important. Also important is whether or not they are motivated to come out against someone or the other.
Harris has done well at gaining on motivating voters to come out for her. And against him. Trump has his solid base that will come out for him. Part of what Harris accomplished, and will continue to pound on, is not being someone soft Trump (unfortunate image there, sorry) leaners feel the need to vote against.
yep … give THAT MAN the nuclear codes!
No problem, I didn’t take your previous post personally; actually I probably needed a bit of talking down. Apologies to @Dr_Paprika if I appeared to be jumping down their throat too much.
I guess I’m just frustrated not just by a couple posters here who’ve more or less said ‘eh, his performance wasn’t that bad’, but also by the continuing ‘sane-washing’ I keep seeing in the media.
I read a CNN article the day after the debate that described trump as being ‘off his game’ as opposed to the first debate where Biden had a ‘disastrous’ performance. I know it’s nothing new, and yes, Biden’s performance was disastrous. But the Mariana Trench-level lower standards of normalcy applied to trump, as opposed to other politicians, is just mind-boggling to me.
Trump has lowered the bar considerably and I admit to thinking he didn’t do that bad in the debate. Don’t get me wrong, he continued to say batshit crazy things, lie, and was absolutely owned by Harris, but in terms of Trump’s usual behavior it wasn’t that bad. And now I’m a little depressed after confronting this disturbing truth.
But it kind of was.
My contention is that we saw his usual behavior. But we’re accustomed to seeing short soundbite sized clips with the craziest stuff and don’t have to sit through the 60 minutes (or whatever) of boring blather to get to it.
As above, the folks who do get such exposure get bored and leave part way through as well, and they’re his most ardent supporters.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned here is that Trump said the Central Park jogger is dead. She’s alive, and I’m sure, hating the renewed attention on her.
I don’t quite agree with this analyst that the health care answer was Trump’s undoing at the debate, because I think the real undoing was the priceless bit where he was asked about why he helped kill the bipartisan immigration bill, and instead of answering went on a tirade about how incredibly fantastic his rallies are, which then segued into a psychotic rant about immigrants eating your dogs and cats. (Several videos posted upthread; the one with Jon Stewart’s commentary is the best!) I saw an article recently quoting a psychiatrist saying that this level of cognitive decline suggests the need for immediate medical attention.
But anyway, here’s this other point that this analyst was making, regarding the accusation that Trump had no plan with which to replace the ACA:
Let’s cut to the chase: “I have concepts of a plan” was the defining moment of this debate and is going to go down in presidential debate lore as one of the most pathetic lines in debate history. For the record, it was about health care—specifically, the long-awaited but never arriving Republican replacement for Obamacare. David Muir asked Trump if he had a plan to finally deliver what conservative lawmakers spent well over a decade failing to solve. And he uttered the imperishable words.
This Was the Beginning of Donald Trump’s Final Unraveling | The New Republic
But wait! How could he have only a “concept of a plan” when he had a “fully developed” health care plan to replace the ACA way back in April, 2019!
Trump: It is developed, it is fully developed. It’s going to be announced very soon
The comedy just writes itself. No further commentary needed! 
Canadians tend to avoid extreme characterizations. My comments meant that Trump did not seem to have dementia and transcripts of his comments would make a larger degree of sense than examples quoted here. I have given other examples of his bizarre thoughts here and do not personally understand Trump’s popularity. However, many will vote for Trump, he could still win this election and has decent odds to do so. This remains true despite losing a debate badly. Most people do not pay much attention to politics.
There’s a huge difference between no interest in being a political junkie who follows every political development in great detail, and having no interest in major decisions that shape the future of your nation and have the capacity to bring it to ruin.
The word “politics” in the context of your statement has a very broad meaning, and it essentially means the difference between whether or not a democratic nation is capable of governing itself. Democracies survive based on a relatively informed electorate. The US is on the verge of being an idiocracy incapable of self-governance.
Just … don’t let him catch a late night showing of Dr. Strangelove.
his answer of “concept of a plan” reminded me of rudy’s answer to bowers. " he had “lots of theories”, just didn’t have the evidence.
team trump is all file folder, no file.
That’s because trump already sold (or traded away for favors) the contents:
I did raise that point during the debate, but I assume it was lost in the general flow of the thread.
I did read the whole thread, so I must have forgotten you mentioning her. Apologies!
No worries. I’m but a drop in the ocean in this place. Some people are much bigger drips.