Presidential Debate Thread

[batmagadanleadoff]

So they'll hang on. And the Democrats will run an unqualified candidate and hope that "He's not Trump" will be enough to carry the day. I don't think it will be.

It should be enough to carry the day. He's not Trump should be enough. That's how I see it. This election is about Trump not winning, not about Biden winning, even though it's essentially the same thing. I'd vote for Biden if his head was disembodied and in one of those jars with the blue water.

[metsmarathon]

its crazy that in a contest between a feeble old man and an elderly amoral felon who's hellbent on tearing down our every institution for furtherence of his own ego and greed, we're worried if the nice old man is up to the task.

but here we fucking are.

[nymr83]

So they'll hang on. And the Democrats will run an unqualified candidate and hope that "He's not Trump" will be enough to carry the day. I don't think it will be.

It should be enough to carry the day. He's not Trump should be enough. That's how I see it. This election is about Trump not winning, not about Biden winning, even though it's essentially the same thing. I'd vote for Biden if his head was disembodied and in one of those jars with the blue water.

"He's not Trump" barely worked last time during a pandemic when Biden got to hide in his basement from the public, now he is 4 years older with 4 years of a stressful job behind him and there is no pandemic to help hide. It's not going to work again.

[batmagadanleadoff]

its crazy that in a contest between a feeble old man and an elderly amoral felon who's hellbent on tearing down our every institution for furtherence of his own ego and greed, we're worried if the nice old man is up to the task.

but here we fucking are.

That's because this country has lost its political mind. We are in sheer madness territory. We're already there. We're like Germany in the 1930s. And please spare me the crap about how we're not like Nazi Germany because there's no genocide here. Germany lost its mind years before the Final Solution became an official secret government policy.

This isn't debatable and we don't need dueling academic 25 paragraph long form think pieces in The Atlantic and in The New Yorker to show that we've lost our minds. Isn't QAnon enough? Say all you want about how QAnon is a fringe movement within MAGA but almost one out five Americans believes it and they're propping up Trump's political career. Without his QAnon voters, he'd never win an election. Trump has consolidated the true ignoramuses of this nation. QAnoners and voters who think Hillary is skullfucking toddlers in the basements of DC pizzerias. We have lost our minds and one day, when we're out of this madness, history will tell future generations of Americans that we've lost our fucking minds.

I have so little faith in the general electorate that I doubt it can even comprehend the terrible enormity of last week's Trump immunity SCOTUS decision. It's just an abstraction to them. The corruptness of that decision won't sink in until Trump's political opponents start "committing suicide" by hurling themselves off of balconies like in Putin's Russia and voters wake up one day to learn that Ivanka Trump now owns the Grand Canyon.

When a nation is hypnotized by the thrall of a madman like Trump, it usually doesn't end before the nation finally falls over a cliff after tremendous, catastrophic damage has been done. Because people are so uninformed that that's what it takes. They're like grade school kids, not any kind of grade school kids, but dumb grade school kids who can't be taught not to touch a hot stove and the only way they'll learn is by burning themselves so severely that they have to be admitted into a hospital for several days.

[batmagadanleadoff]

So they'll hang on. And the Democrats will run an unqualified candidate and hope that "He's not Trump" will be enough to carry the day. I don't think it will be.

It should be enough to carry the day. He's not Trump should be enough. That's how I see it. This election is about Trump not winning, not about Biden winning, even though it's essentially the same thing. I'd vote for Biden if his head was disembodied and in one of those jars with the blue water.

"He's not Trump" barely worked last time during a pandemic when Biden got to hide in his basement from the public, now he is 4 years older with 4 years of a stressful job behind him and there is no pandemic to help hide. It's not going to work again.

I know that it won't work. So does everybody else. But it should. It won't work because as a nation, we've lost our fucking minds. (See rant, above post).

[Edgy MD]

Then-candidate Biden hiding in his basement was a talking point for the former president during his campaign and during his criminal attempt to invalidate the election he lost. We shouldn't repeat it as a fact.

[metirish]

President Biden is giving a very vibrant speech at the Nato summit right now , live on NBC

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Nancy Pelosi is suggesting Biden reconsider his decision to run, per the New York Times.

Pelosi is the most senior Democrat to suggest he consider dropping out. Here’s the latest.

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former House speaker and a longtime Biden ally, made the strongest public push yet for the president to reconsider his re-election bid, suggesting on Wednesday that “time is running short” for him to make a decision.

Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Ms. Pelosi said that she would back Mr. Biden “whatever he decides.” But she said she wanted to restart conversations about Mr. Biden’s political future after the NATO summit he is hosting this week in Washington, which on Thursday will include the president’s first news conference since his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/10 ... n-drop-out

[Benjamin Grimm]

Unfortunately, it sounds like he already has "made a decision". I think the correct words are "change his mind".

[kcmets]

My brain was going to explode, so I fixed Bob's card...

[Bob Alpacadaca]

My brain was going to explode, so I fixed Bob's card...

Thank you very much! Looking fine! I appreciate your mad PhotoShop skills. I have none.

[Frayed Knot]

And now George Clooney has called for J.B. to drop out of the race.
I think this makes it un-American not to.

[Benjamin Grimm]

We still need to hear what Tom Hanks thinks.

[kcmets]

Sitting the edge of my sofa waiting on De Niro's hot take as well!

[Lefty Specialist]

Considering Clooney headlined a fundraiser for Biden just a few weeks ago, maybe he should keep his elegantly chiseled yap closed.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I think American politics would benefit immeasurably if the venture-capitalist crowd would simply leave their checkbooks with the attendants and get the hell out. You made a lot of money? Fine, give us some and there’s the door. These people are suffering from a different strain of Sorkin syndrome. They believe that all that money can make their delusions come to life. They believe that because their money can buy practically everything else, it can also buy political peace and goodwill toward men.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/p ... ment-memo/

[batmagadanleadoff]

Unfortunately, it sounds like he already has "made a decision". I think the correct words are "change his mind".

It's Pelosi's extremely diplomatic way of saying that Biden should drop out. FWIW, I think that Pelosi's political instincts are tremendous.

[Edgy MD]

Considering Clooney headlined a fundraiser for Biden just a few weeks ago, maybe he should keep his elegantly chiseled yap closed.

Yeah, it's a little late.

I would figure that, if I sincerely thought it was in the best interest of defeating former President Trump to ask President Biden to stand down, I'd tell him directly, rather than try to shame him into withdrawing with a public op-ed. That weakens him while triggering his pride and survival instinct.

[Lefty Specialist]

And the media laps it up.

Meanwhile Trump had a rally last night, but the media won't cover his insanity. Except one guy did.

I can't wait for all of the media coverage of Trump's confusing Tuesday night rally
Folks, I'm worried about Donald Trump and his mental decline, which was on full display at a rally Tuesday night on one of his Florida golf courses.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 347776007/

[MFS62]

From that article:

It’s now up to Trump’s family and responsible members of the Republican Party to find a way for him to gracefully step aside and let a younger and more competent candidate take over, possibly someone like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Love it.
Rex is one of my favorite humorous political commentators.
Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

And the media laps it up.

Meanwhile Trump had a rally last night, but the media won't cover his insanity. Except one guy did.

So did Lawrence O'Donnell last night on MSNBC. O'Donnell called him a "psychopath" and also maybe, if I remember, an orange psychopath in a sweaty hat who spent all last night lying into a microphone. I've never heard Trump called a psychopath in the mainstream press but it's about time. Trump truly is a madman and a psychopath. The mainstream press can't accept that a major party presidential candidate with at least an even chance of winning the next Presidential election could possibly be a madman and a psychopath and so it rationalizes and always sanitizes Trump and his deranged speeches. The press should be referring to Trump as deranged or as a psychopath or as a madman 500 times daily.

[ashie62]

This daily news cycle on Biden has a similar pace to Richard Nixon at the end

[Edgy MD]

There's at least one huge difference.

[Edgy MD]

He just messed up in the kind of way that will be dissected, calling President Zelenskyy "President Putin."

He immediately self-corrected but it's still not gonna help.

[nymr83]

He just messed up in the kind of way that will be dissected, calling President Zelenskyy "President Putin."

He immediately self-corrected but it's still not gonna help.

This is like introducing Churchill as Adolf Hitler. Get the hell off the stage, Biden. Might as well save him a front row seat at the Trump inauguration out of gratitude for all he has done for Former and Future President Orange at this point.