I’m getting ready to live-spout the #PresidentialDebate. I previously spouted two Republican Debates.
I haven’t turned those into blog posts yet, but that’s okay. They were a distraction from the real story like the rodeo clowns who distract the crowd while the paramedics carry the grievously injured from the arena (I stole that joke from someone, maybe PJ O’Rourke). Mainly they demonstrated that the Republicans are no longer a serious political party.
Every 4 years they say “This is the most important election of our lifetime.” It keeps being true because some things keep getting worse.
It’s especially true this time if you care about democracy; there’s an authoritarian trend in the world today and America cannot succumb to it.
I’m not on the fence here and I not going to pretend to be.
That authoritarian trend has been building in the US for a while now; the first symptom I noticed was the whole “We’re a republic, not a democracy” refrain. Two things about that. First, we’re both. It’s possible to be both. Representative democracies are democracies and we’ve spent the better part of a quarter millennium becoming more democratic.
Secondly, I can translate what “We’re a republic, not a democracy” really means. Whoever says that really means “I don’t care about fairness, my vote should count more than everyone else’s. That’s not American.
Meanwhile, I’m going to enjoy the preshow.
Here we go. Lawrence O’Donnell claims no debate has ever been determinative. Counterpoint: 1960 and 1980.
Let’s go!
9:01 pm
I have to admit I’m nervous.
This one could make a big difference. I don’t get it, but Biden needs to change the narrative. 538 has this thing as a tie but it looks like Trump leads to me.
Please welcome President Biden and convicted felon Donald Trump.
Biden is on point right out of the gate. Four years ago was a dystopia created by Trump he reminds us. I wish his voice were stronger.
9:05 pm
Trump’s voice is better, but his answer here only works if you ignore a hell of a lot.
And Trump doesn’t understand Tariffs. They absolutely would spike prices.
But so far Trump’s performance is better than I expected.
Trump: “Social Security, he’s destroying it because millions of people are pouring into our country, and they’re putting them onto Social Security…” We are not putting immigrants on Social Security. That’s a lie.
9:14 pm
“Everybody wanted the abortion issue sent back to the states” is a lie.
9:15 pm
After birth abortions are not a thing. That’s insane. And it’s murder.
I like Biden’s comparison to sending Civil Rights back to the states.
“Immigrants are raping and killing women” needs a fact check. “Biden threw open the borders” is a lie. [It looks like there are a couple of stories in the news right now but according to factcheck.org: “FBI data show a downward trend in violent crime in the U.S., and there’s no evidence to support the claim that there’s been a crime wave driven by immigrants.”
Biden’s getting more animated and he’s right about the Republicans wanting a national abortion ban. Lots of them anyway.
9:21 pm
“In the final couple of months of my presidency we had the safest border…” says Trump. During a pandemic and a collapsed economy. Lie.
This is a pretty good format for Trump.
Okay. Trump is starting to rant and he’s seething. People can see through his nonsense, right?
9:31 pm
The decision to mute Trump’s mic is making him seem more reasonable. That was a strategic mistake.
On January 6th Trump said, “You have to fight or they will take our country.” He never said any of this “peacefully and patriotically” stuff. [Note: okay, he may have actually said that once in a speech filled with exhortations like “fighting like hell” and “we’re going to take it back.” This is disingenuous at best.]
9:44 pm
I have no idea what Trump is talking about here. Someone destroyed documents because Trump was right? [Note: Maybe this? There were certainly a lot of baseless claims about Biden setting up Trump or manufacturing these charges.]
But Biden is taking it to Trump on the felonies.
And Trump spins his counter-narratives with conviction.
I don’t know what happened to the Charlotteville story but Biden is right here; the “debunking” doesn’t match what I saw from the time.
9:53 pm
Trump: “I’m the one that got the insulin down for the people.” That’s another lie. This is getting tedious.
Raising the cap on the income subject to FICA is a good idea.
The “Losers and Suckers” story was documented at the time.
10:15 pm
It’s exhausting to keep up with everything that’s being said. This seems like a good resource.
www.cbsnews.com/news/first-presidential-debate-2024-fact-check/
Trump keeps turning up the temperature. Where did all this World War III stuff come from?
Trump tried really hard to avoid the ‘will you accept the election results’ question. He answers with a conditional: “If it’s a fair election…” before segueing into the tired old lies about 2020.
10:32 pm
Biden’s take “You’ll never accept the results because you’re a whiner” was funny and probably closer to the truth.
10:37
Closing Statements:
Biden starts off with “I was left a mess to clean up…” and that’s a good start, but diving into Tax policy isn’t great here. Although I suspect that all of this is on point, it’s a rational argument and Biden needs to connect emotionally.
Trump’s trotting out the same disinformation that he’s spewed for the entire debate. But he sounds confident which contrasts with Biden’s presentation. If you just listen to the tone this is an entirely different debate.
Analysis (Quick Take-away):
The story of the 1960 debate was that Kennedy won because of his presentation. Nixon came across as a shifty sweaty liar and suddenly the unknown Senator from Massachusttes was a contender for President.
Biden won this one on truth and points, but he seemed feeble. The pundits are saying that people are scared.
Trump certainly wins on presentation even though his narrative was mostly false.
What is the conversation that moves forward? I’m afraid I know.
Afterthoughts:
And, yeah. Now it’s Friday and the prevailing winds of the news cyclone are clear. The Democrats are in panic mode and some think they should replace Biden on the ticket. In my mind that’s premature.
Biden had a bad night, there’s no doubt of that. There was some dubious decisions on the part of the campaign for sure. Not the least of which was failing to get the news of Biden’s cold into the public consciousness. That was a mistake and it was avoidable. “Don’t mind my voice, I have a cold” would have blunted the damage. Joanne wonders if Biden had been given cold medicine, which we all know can knock you on your ass. That would have been political malpractice.
This is an important election and I understand that people have anxiety. The stakes are high. Still, I think this is the correct response to Biden’s performance last night.
Both Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris have grown in my estimation in the last 24 hours.
I admit that I was disheartened after the debate last night. I feel much better today. Why? Biden had a rally in North Carolina today. I recommend that you watch his whole speech, but if you don’t have the time, check out this clip. I suggest that the Biden campaign play this on a loop and get it in front of as many eyes as possible before today’s narrative calcifies.
I don’t know what exactly was up with President Biden last night but clearly he’s fine now. It’s time to change the conversation to convicted felon Donald Trump’s flagrant firehose of falsehoods. For my money THAT’s the most disqualifying thing we saw in the debate last night. And you know what? If President Biden has a cold, he’ll be better in a day or two. Convicted felon Trump on the other hand has either lost all contact with reality or is a compulsive liar. That, sadly, shows no sign of changing. Donald Trump isn’t going to get better.
Image Credits:
- Featured Image: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds Getty Images Fair Use
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