On a similar note, in 2016, I didn’t vote against Trump as much as I voted for Tim Kaine. I just liked everything about him.
He should have been our Veep, not Mr. Mother.
While that may have been helpful to the people only watch the debate (and don’t see (even by accident) any news afterwards), by her not bringing it up, IMO, gives her more time to talk about the (next) question instead of spending part of her two minutes accusing him of things the fact checkers are going to fact check, but also, it gives her less oppertunity to be wrong (which is why I said accuse). She can’t know every single thing that Trump has done or said over the years, so if she calls out Pence for lying (when talking about something Trump did or didn’t do) and she’s incorrect, she’s the one that’s going to get fact checked.
That’ll be huge. IMHO, anything to do with loosening restrictions on mj are what’s going to motivate people that weren’t going to vote, to get up and vote. And, in all likelihood, the majority of the people that weren’t going to vote are going to vote Biden, not Trump.
She should have mentioned that the tax cuts for the middle class taxpayer are gone. They were phased out very quickly. Most middle class taxpayers saved a couple thou or so year one, then 1/4 that year 2, then nothing.
However, the cuts for the rich have to phase out.
BLACK FLIES MATTER!
Too late. George Takei has already tweeted about it. The memes are, well, flying fast now.
I could have sworn there was a remark in this thread about expecting SNL to do something with the fly on Pence’s head. They really should have him look like he’s falling asleep during those times he lowered his eyes when Harris talked.
The moderators lay down every. Fucking. Time.
The debate moderators should be drawn from the military. Or underwriters at Chase Bank, or I don’t know ANY-FUCKING-BODY OTHER THAN THE WET TISSUES THEY’VE BEEN USING. I want to see debates with rules strictly enforced by people WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT ENFORCING RULES. This clearly doesn’t apply to ANY living soul in the business of television journalism.
Or, this guy:
Having gone to Catholic school, this one is my favorite.
I mean, really, I curse the fact that this topic is a matter of mere speculation and humor…instead of being taken seriously by the people who actually organize these debates and give the candidates their platform. It’s like they’re so far removed from the real world that real people live in, they’ve mentally checked out when it comes to enforcing any semblance of rules - maybe in the world of TV news, everyone at the top is constantly breaking rules? I don’t know. It’s just really really REALLY REALLY aggravating when there’s endless talk of the importance of standing up to bullies and speaking truth to power and holding people accountable and all the other catchphrases, to witness the abject failure of people to follow through with doing any of that.
It makes me feel so hopeless. Makes me feel like the world really DOES belong to the Donald Trumps and Mike Pences of the world, the guys who take whatever they want out of life and goddamn the consequences - these choleric predators do whatever they want and the world’s their oyster; the little people will be ever thus. Is it SO much to ask for a brief glimmer of resistance where it actually matters?
Was the fly looking to lay some MAGAts or something?
Beelzebub will soon be coming to claim his own.
Any middle school teacher could do the job. Journalists are people who never performed a real job or failed at one.
It’s the same way they’ve gutted journalism - everyone is always too concerned about access. The commission on presidential debates grows some balls? Next election either we can’t agree on debates because there’s no commission, or they make a new one.
They’re also afraid of being called bias. The right wing in this country has created a deliberate tactic of “working the refs” for a few decades. They scream and accuse the media of bias no matter what, and the media tries to bend over backwards to please them, to appear “unbiased”, and then they scream bias again and the media keeps inching closer to them.
So let’s say two sports teams are playing a game. The first team gets called for 2 penalties, the second team is called for 10 penalties. Did the refs call the game fairly?
Well, you don’t know. How many penalties did each team deserve? If the first team actually commited 0 penalties, and the second team really committed 20 penalties, then the biased is actually strongly in favor of the second team, even though they were called for 5 times as many penalties.
This is the angle the republicans are trying to play. They’ll say “being balanced means calling 10 penalties on both sides!” and then they’ll commit 5 or 10 or 20 times as many penalties, and bitch about how many more penalties they get called on them, until the media keeps moving in their favor over and over again, to avoid accusations of bias, to the point where the media is going to call 10 penalties on each side to appear balanced no matter how many penalties each side actually commits.
This is where we are now. The republicans go batshit and commit penalties all over the field, the democrats mostly play clean but commit a few penalties here and there, but in order to appear balanced, both sides are given equal amounts of called penalties. This is the false balance that dominates our media and lets Republicans run loose. It’s very much an intentional tactic on this part, and a big part of how they’ve normalized their insanity.
Watching a few minutes of the debate with my non-political brother (who thought that Trump won the first debate, even if only barely), who predicted that Harris would devastate Pence in this debate, he had the following observation:
“It’s too bad that she’s not running for president with Biden as VP. I’d vote for her.”
Of course, he also predicted that the conspiracy-minded people would see Pence’s eye and say that they’d consider it proof that he was a lizard person and that his contact lens was slipping.
Maybe sports refs SHOULD moderate the debates, and enforce penalties with sports-inspired consequences. Interrupting? Move five yards back from your microphone for your next question. Tell an obvious untruth? Five minutes in the penalty box, where your opponent has the floor. Refuse to answer a question? You’re outta here, hit the showers.
I like this one.
We know he’s lying, but we’ve made up our minds already; we’re not the audience that matters. If you’re a low information voter who is considering a vote based on performance, Pence did fairly well. Harris wasn’t bad, but Pence came into the debate with more on the line and he did his job. That’s all I’m sayin’, not that he outright won the debate.
As an example, I thought Pence came across as assertive and stronger in the exchange over court packing. Harris kinda dodged the question and he called her out on it explicitly. I think he also scored points by attacking support for the ‘green new deal’. Sure, the attack by Pence was lacking in terms of substance, but he scored some style points, I think.
I also think Harris has a way of appearing a little haughty and condescending at times. It’s her tone of voice - something I noticed in her primary debates and I think it was a turn-off for voters even then.
In terms of doing what each candidate needed to do, I thought Pence probably achieved more out of the debate. But I don’t think he dominated Harris, who wasn’t great but was okay. She avoided a bad night, which was all she had to do. So slight edge to Pence, but I doubt it fundamentally alters the landscape, especially when we’ll likely be talking about another Trump outrage in 3, 2, 1…
This is a great idea! Loud whistles when they go over time. And thrown flags-- with rocks in them.
Assertive, well-educated women in public life are ALWAYS accused of this. Right or wrong, they all get this label. Hell, this was Hillary’s biggest sin, being uppity, acting like she’s better than everyone else. People of color get it, too, Obama being the most salient example. "Who do they think they are?"
Next Pres debate will be virtual, it was just announced: