Yesterday, alarmed by Joe’s continued awful polls in swing states (at
-13 vs. Trump in Nevada for example), the
Biden campaign “shook up the race”- in the parlance of the NY Times- offering
to have the first presidential debate June 27th. This would bring up the debate scheduled by
three months, while also taking it out of the province of the Presidential
Debate Commission – which I for one think is an excellent idea. Because that
Commission, for whatever reason, has just turned the debates into a 3 ring
circus, what with catcalls, peanut gallery hoots and hollers, and boorish interruptions – namely by Trump which we beheld in 2020, e.g.
According to the Times, the “move was meant to jolt Americans to attention sooner than later about their consequential choice in 2024.” But that is doubtful given too many of my countrymen appear to be in state of more or less permanent miasma. They’ve lost the ability to reason, to think critically and especially to see Donald Trump as the existential threat he is.
A perfect example was the Times’ surveying 12 women voters two days ago, the majority of whom said they’d vote for Trump again as they did in 2020. This despite conceding Trump was "abhorrent", "crude", "bigoted", "politically unstable", "mentally unstable", "narcissistic".
Why then pull the lever for the orange imp? Because they dismissed Joe as “an idiot”, “incompetent”, and “ineffective” while they still see Trump as “funny”, “energetic”, a “strong leader” and “former businessman”. Which they think cancels out his negatives. All of which caused Janice’s head to spin whereupon she dismissed the lot as “boneheaded Trumper nitwits".
Which may be right, and that moron level of function may be due to excessive exposure to FOX TV or maybe too much TikTok. Who knows? What I do know is the absence of critical perception regarding the principals in this campaign is leading us toward a political catastrophe in November. People - too many - are mistaking Trump's feral and psychotic outbursts for "energy" and even "youth", just as they can't see that the economic indices are actually much better than they were under Trump, i.e.
While Biden’s advisers believe a Trump-Biden rematch will mark a jump start for Joe’s dismal approval ratings, I am not so sure. I suspect the problem may be a lot more systemic and require more competent (read 'Aggressive') campaign strategists and thinkers, akin to what Bill Clinton had in his “war room” in the 1992 and 1996 campaigns. Think James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. I myself suggested recruiting Rahm Emmanuel, to head the campaign. Get him back from Tokyo and put him to work... now!
Having said that, if the Biden team can hold the Trump bunch to the format suggested: in a closed studio, no studio audience, one single moderator and the two candidates, period.
Like the JFK- Nixon 1960 debates, e.g. the first one moderated by Howard K. Smith:
Kennedy vs. Nixon: The first 1960 presidential debate (youtube.com)
I believe Biden will have a much higher chance of success. The sedate aura and somber environment alone will deter a madman sociopath like Trump from unseemly outbursts which will merely paint him as unhinged and psychotic. Finally showing viewers the kind of unfit hyena he really is and why he should not be presiding over the cleaning of porto- potties, far less attain the presidency of the U.S.
Will it be a spectacle? Sexy? Armchair grabbing and pulse pounding? Likely no. But that's not the point. The point is the conveyance of information and the background knowledge and class of the two men - just as the 1960 presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Click on the link above and watch the full Kennedy-Nixon debate to see what a genuine presidential debate can aspire to. No name calling, no feral rhetoric, no nicknames or call outs to crowds (mainly because there weren't any.)
Basically, we need to return the upcoming debates to an atmosphere of dignity and mutual respect as opposed to chaos and incivility
The fact the Trump team swiftly accepted the Biden team's challenge means that at least on paper they are amenable to their candidate not behaving like "a mad monkey with a gun" for once. (A phrase I owe to Jesse MacIntosh from one 2016 interview with Chris Hayes on MSNBC)
Another plus for the debates is keeping them between the two principals. No 'bullfrog with a bullhorn' voiced Bobby Kennedy Jr. spouting his anti-vaxx BS or conspiracy ideations. Also, taking the focus off the binary nature of this campaign - in which Americans need to grasp RFK Jr. can never win, only toss the election to Trump by siphoning off votes for Biden.
We will see what happens, but so far the odds look good for a genuine debate, devoid of theatrics, bombast and chaos - between Joe Biden and Dotard Trump.
See Also:
by Carl Gibson | June 16, 2024 - 5:40am | permalink
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are set to face off in their first televised debate of the 2024 cycle later this month on CNN. Both campaigns are scrambling to get their candidates prepared for their first debate in four years.
The New York Times reported that Biden's advisors are preparing for a feisty 90 minutes of intense back-and-forth with the 45th president of the United States, who they don't expect to play fair despite the strict rules both campaigns agreed to. The debate, which will not include a live audience, has a format in which neither candidate gives an opening statement but rather goes right into answering moderators' questions with a two-minute time limit. A flashing red light will blink when the candidate speaking has five seconds remaining.
Both candidates will also get one minute to rebut their opponent after each question. And notably, the speaker's microphone will be cut off after the time limit has elapsed for each answer or rebuttal. This is a stark departure from their lone 2020 debate, in which Trump constantly interjected, prompting Biden to famously say at one point, "will you shut up, man?"
And:
Odds these debates will happen? I’m answering all your questions.
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | May 18, 2024 - 6:25am | permalink
Donald Trump has tried to taunt President Joe Biden by claiming he's ready for a presidential debate "anytime, anywhere." The gambit left him little choice but to immediately accept when the Biden campaign offered debate dates in June and September, and terms like not having an audience and allowing real journalists to moderate. But within mere hours it became clear that Trump and the rest of the GOP already regretted the decision.
Pretty quickly, Trump tried to change the terms of the debate, pretending that it will be held on Oct. 2 on Fox News. The Biden campaign swiftly rejected this lie, accusing Trump of "playing games," and pointing out that Trump frequently talks big but then ends up "pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all."
It's true, of course. Trump has a habit of promising that he'll do bold things and then backing out, whether it's his empty promises to testify at his various trials or his false claims he'll release policy proposals in a week or two. (It's been over a month of silence, for instance, since he promised he would release an abortion platform in "14 days.") In 2020, still burned by his terrible first debate with Biden, Trump refused to show up at the second and held an ego-flattering rally instead.
And:
by Michael Winship | October 1, 2020 - 7:18am | permalink
Just minutes in, Trump turned it into a travesty; bellowing, repeatedly interrupting and talking out of turn, lying, pigheadedly violating the agreements carefully worked out by the official Commission on Presidential Debates and both campaign staffs for a proper discussion of policy. At a time when we’re desperate for rational solutions, Trump was the proverbial bull in the china shop of democracy, and when he was done there was barely a piece of porcelain left intact. He acted as if this was one of his rallies, God help us, playing to our lowest animal instincts and insulting our intelligence.
Throughout his life and so-called career, Trump has always insisted that rules are for suckers and don’t apply to him—he can shoot a person on Fifth Avenue, grab a woman by her genitals, refuse to pay his millions of debt—and last night was no exception. By all accounts, what happened Tuesday is what he planned all along. Maybe it satisfied his bloodthirsty, delusional base, stewing in a toxic soup of Fox News and QAnon conspiracies, but for most of us it was one more manifestation of the tragedy imposed on the nation—and the world—by a megalomaniac with nary a scruple or a scintilla of human kindness.
And:
Trump Is Scared Shitless: He Can't Handle the Truth, so He Wouldn't Let Biden Talk
by Amanda Marcotte | October 1, 2020 - 8:44am | permalink
Forget the euphemistic language being used by much of the mainstream press to describe Tuesday night's presidential debate between Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. That wasn't a "contentious debate," nor were the candidates "bickering." No, Biden showed up to do normal politician things, only to find himself trapped on stage with Trump, a shit-flinging monkey whose only purpose was to prevent anything resembling truth from slipping through and touching the ears of the public.
For an hour and a half, the same thing kept happening over and over. (And over, and over.) Biden would try to talk, about literally anything — Trump's failures, his own policy ideas, the state of the nation, hell, possibly the weather — and Trump would immediately interrupt the second he heard a truth about to be stated, ranting over Biden and silencing any factual information or expression of decency under a blanket of lies and vitriol.
And:
by Jeremy Sherman | October 1, 2020 - 8:30am | permalink
The kid is in his room playing video games. Mom calls to him that it's time to do chores and homework.
The first presidential debate of 2020 was unlike anything we have seen before. CNN’s Jake Tapper said: “That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.” “He was his own tweets come to life.” “We’ll talk about who won the debate, who lost the debate … One thing for sure, the American people lost.” Conservative pundit William Kristol called it “a spectacle… an embarrassment… a disgrace… because of the behavior of one man, Donald Trump. The interrupting and the bullying, the absence of both decency and dignity — those were Donald Trump’s distinctive contributions to the evening, and they gave the affair the rare and sickening character of a national humiliation.”
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