# Will you watch the debates? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 29, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813 "2020-09-29T12:59:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/161 "2020-09-30T16:39:34Z")
In fact, Kaine’s attempts to turn the debate into emotional discourse fell flat because Pence just nonchalantly sat there and responded in his boring, predictable, Indiana monotone. ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/162 "2020-09-30T17:11:50Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > The fact that he does so while said pie-hole undergoes contortions like the anus of a desperately constipated camel is a comical bonus, though his acolytes never seem to notice the stunning resemblance. > > You will henceforth refrain from posting stuff like this while I’m eating! Not just because the images are disgusting, but also because I almost choked from laughing. It seems like one of the late night shows should take close up clips of Trump speaking and instead of the bullshit he says put the music that those old plate spinning acts used to use as it goes on and on until a final cut to the guy in his striped vest with his arms in the air in triumph while the plates all fall behind him and the music concludes. Could be very done, and all dopers will proclaim: “Camel lips!” ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/163 "2020-09-30T17:19:23Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > So, I was wrong about Biden. he was coherent. This is progress of a kind. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/164 "2020-09-30T20:36:02Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > So, I was wrong about Biden. he was coherent. … Props > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > … Even Santorum said trump should’ve renounced the supremisists, and didn’t because they are his supporters. Thay are his supporters, and he is their champion. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/165 "2020-09-30T21:09:47Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > As I mentioned in the other debate thread, even Rasumussen has Trump’s approval rating down since last week. And the Rasmussen election poll has Biden pulling away from Trump! > **[Latest Polls](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/national/)** > > The latest political polls and polling averages from FiveThirtyEight. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/166 "2020-09-30T22:09:23Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > I have also read a sign language person say he saw many signs Trump was lying. I think you meant “body language”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/167 "2020-09-30T23:11:36Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > [@eenerms](#): > > > > This is the guy who wants to bring Respect back to the position.? > > Until the day someone does that, the current office deserves no respect. Be nice if the electorate (and I include the Electoral College in that) had shown the Office some respect, and not placed an America-hating fuckstick in it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/168 "2020-09-30T23:13:55Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Well, I feel justified for not watching. I suspected it was going to be absolutely disgraceful, and it sounds like it was. My evening was much more enjoyable re-watching season 5 of Schitt’s Creek. > > Regarding mute buttons: I don’t see what good that would do if they’re both in the same studio. It seems like Trump’s verbal diarrhea is meant to trip up Biden and prevent him from giving coherent answers. Muting his mic isn’t going to prevent him from talking over Biden to throw him off. Maybe they could put both of them in individual soundproofed booths, allowing them to hear one another, but not to be picked up on each other’s microphones. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/169 "2020-09-30T23:23:35Z")
I decided to watch it. For one thing there are people, even posters on this board who maintain that Biden is in cognitive decline and I wanted to see how he handles himself. My wife walked after less than five minutes and I turned off the TV about five minutes later, since it was obviously a shitshow, to use the technical term. This morning I turned on the CBC morning show around 5:58 to catch the 6 AM news. As I turned it I heard the tail end of the morning show host Mike Finnerty saying, “…should be held in sound-proof booths with the mics controlled by the moderator.” That is the only way. I would go further and automate the mic switching. One minute for the question, three for each answer, then 2, 2, 2, and 2. Rinse and repeat five more times. If you get shut off mid-sentence, tough. You know the rules beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/170 "2020-09-30T23:36:14Z")
Headlines around polls, while feeling good at the moment, can also be used by the trailing party to motivate lazy voters to actually go and vote, that otherwise would sit-out the election. I say let the Faux News guzzlers believe their man won the debate handily, increase their confidence and complacence, and lull them into thinking they have it all secured, so no need to bother with that cumbersome voting thing. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/171 "2020-10-01T00:07:33Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Maybe they could put both of them in individual soundproofed booths, allowing them to hear one another, but not to be picked up on each other’s microphones. I like this except why let them hear each other? Just let them answer the questions, period. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/172 "2020-10-01T00:16:17Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > > Maybe they could put both of them in individual soundproofed booths, alIowing them to hear one another, but not to be picked up on each other’s microphones. > > I like this except why let them hear each other? Just let them answer the questions, period. My personal debating experience (at two high school speech tournaments in 1971) involved having an opportunity to rebut the opponent’s argument. Now when I did it, I didn’t really listen to the opposing team’s arguments, so we lost; but I think in a more high-stakes version, the people on the stage should at least get the CHANCE to outperform my 14-year old self. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/173 "2020-10-01T07:39:41Z")
Of course, what you say makes sense EXCEPT for the fact that one of the participants in the current high-stakes version isn’t even remotely close to the level of maturity that you had achieved as a 14-year old. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/174 "2020-10-01T14:45:55Z")
Granted. But squandering the chance would be on him; not providing it would be on the rules committee. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/175 "2020-10-01T14:57:46Z")
I thought Biden did as well as could be expected. Although not given the chance to discuss policies, he kept his temper and focused on the audience. Trump appealed to his base but needs to widen it. He came off as one might expect. The moderator tried, but lost control due to Trump’s strategy. Soundproof booths won’t work because in debates one must respond. Cutting off the mike would. Shock collars would be demeaning and set a bad precedent, however… ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/176 "2020-10-01T15:08:21Z")
This ^, what @bobot said. People wonder ‘Why? What does he get out of supporting awful people?’ Let’s remember first what he got in the beginning: he got strong support within the Republican party itself. Trump made it damn hard to assault him from a purity standpoint, which is how many incumbent candidates begin to deteriorate. The politics of Karl Rove still lives on: for Republicans in particular, it really is about consolidating power within the base, and then motivating them to go to the polls. Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham…they all know that Trump can’t be attacked from the right because Trump figured out that their party relied heavily on race baiting. This was true long before 2015; it’s just that Trump had the balls to actually come out and define the party publicly in that fashion. What I am saying is, **the Republican party is a racist party**. Even some Republicans want to believe that it isn’t, but it is. That is why the party’s ship most likely eventually will go down, but it will go down with Trump as the nutty captain of the ship. Any thoughts of the party secretly plotting his ouster if he loses a close election is fantasy. That won’t happen. If Trump wants a civil war, my bet is that he will get one, and he will drag the Republican party into the fight with him. They may not want to go there, but go there they will. And Trump knows it. Maybe I’m being hyperbolic in saying a ‘civil war’, but he will sow a lot of friction and discord and I don’t see the Republicans really in a position to stop him. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/177 "2020-10-01T17:00:36Z")
I’m sure the irony is not lost on the ghost of the first Republican President. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/178 "2020-10-01T17:51:42Z")
A joke, by Stephen King: > ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/179 "2020-10-01T19:45:37Z")
Since its obvious Trump is a racist why do people like Leo Terrell and candace Owen support him? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-you-watch-the-debates/921813/180 "2020-10-01T19:51:36Z")
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