The Politics Thread

[Juliajms]

I couldn't watch it. Everyone said Trump would go after Biden's children and given that he has lost two of them I just couldn't. Even though I wasn't exactly gung ho for Joe in the beginning, I'm thankful that he is taking on this burden (and what else can we call it at the age of 78) to help save our country.

[Vee]

 

 

 

 

The DB article is paywalled and can be read here.

[DRW50]

 

The CNN snap poll has Biden at 60%, but they did the same for Hillary. This is probably more accurate to the base, so I guess Biden could have had a worse night. 

 

These two tweets pretty much sum up where my head is at:

 

 

 

Trump had two ways to win these debates - try to do the bare minimum of being "Presidential" and get fawning pundit praise (which I thought he might do), and rant and rave incoherently the whole time, dragging Biden and the press down with him in the same morass of "everything sucks, nothing matters" that helped Hillary lose in 2016. He also managed to solidify his base even more, while Biden opposing the Green New Deal meant that many of the paid fauxgressives like Ryan Knight could use the debate to further depress turnout. 

 

And of course some pundits are wasting no time in making sure Biden looks the worse of the two:

 

 

The best to hope for is that most forget this debate and that the other two don't happen. The ugliness and Trump shaping the entire thing, along with the public reaction, around his toxicity happened in 2016 and could easily happen again. I wish Biden would just say "enough" and have no more debates. It doesn't matter if Trump shits his pants on stage - appearing with him will still give him the win. 

Nancy Pelosi was right. I know Biden had no choice but to debate, but she was right. There should have been none of what we got tonight. It played right into Trump's hands, even as our country falls further into the toilet bowl. 

[Juliajms]

How the f*ck can anyone be undecided, I ask you? Seriously, what more could anyone possibly need to know?

 

[Soapsuds]

I feel the same. I wonder if these people do it just to get attention and appear on

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??

Edited September 30, 2020 by Soapsuds

[Vee]

 

[DRW50]

 

That is exactly why they do it. And many times "undecided" voters are revealed to be Republicans - in some cases high-level Republican officials. 

 

They are just used to reinforce to us that "both sides" are bad and there is no point in voting. Which is exactly what the debate, and the media coverage of it, was geared to do. Biden should not have participated. 

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by DRW50

[Vee]

They haven't both sides'ed this debate.

[DRW50]

 

 

 

 

 

[Vee]

Yeah, read the actual headlines, including the headers and the opening grafs. I did from the Post and the Times last night (I'm not going to comment on Anchorage and Arkansas because c'mon). Some of the headlines are definitely mealymouthed, but they're still not super both sides on this in the stories themselves. And these handful of weak print headlines aside, the overall media coverage, especially on TV, has most certainly not been both sides.

 

There is a difference between being pragmatic and clear eyed about the failings of media, and then searching for the evidence that fits the worst story we expect. I fully expected the media to find a ways to both sides the debate before it ended in order to find a way to give Trump a comeback. They didn't and aren't. This is what is on TV and in media this morning.

 

 

 

[marceline]

So it sounds like the debate went pretty much how I thought. I watched for a few minutes but I never watch Trump if I can avoid it and it looked like Joe had it handled.

[DRW50]

 

I wasn't searching for them until now - there wasn't much need to as this type of talk hung over cable news as well, especially CNN (which had everything from Chris Cuomo making sure to defend Republicans, to Rick Santorum and Van Jones on doing their usual shill routine, to that laughable focus group, to Chris Cilizza chiding everyone and whining about the "pageantry" of politics had been ruined). But we can agree to disagree. I don't see it as any particular media commentary against Trump -  they have too much to lose. 

[janea4old]

 

 

 

 

These are the headlines that annoy me right now.  Calling "the debate" a disgrace, instead of calling Trump a disgrace.

When you play the videos within these tweets, the commentator blames Trump ... but nevertheless the headline is still that "the debate" was the problem, which would give anyone reading headlines the impression that Biden was equally at fault.

Edited September 30, 2020 by janea4old

[janea4old]

Yes Trump was his usual horrid self. And in addition, he refused to take a stand against racist white groups, refused to say if he'd accept the election results, and told everyone don't bother voting by mail because it would fail.

 

Meanwhile, Biden held his own and did well.

 

But the news media is saying the debate was a disaster and giving headlines that make it sound like both men were equally vile.

[DramatistDreamer]

I largely avoided the debate, knowing that it would be terrible but from what I've been reading this morning it seems as though Trump's "standby" comment is being remembered the most, followed by a number of people who seemed surprised at how well Joe did, which goes to show the type of disinformation that Biden has been up against-that so many expected him to be a doddering fool, just because of the lies that have been told about his neurological state.

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by DramatistDreamer
this effing phone is a nightmare.