With great difficulty I forced myself to watch the Trump-Biden debate tonight rather than trust or rely on the analysis of any third party. And it was painful. Excruciating.
Basically, I’d say Biden generally seemed to know the answers and usually had something to say … but his age and stuttering problem made it difficult … for … him … to … speak. (I think he stumbled early on when he said seniors wouldn’t be paying more than $200 a year for their drugs when the actual number for next year is $2,000, but corrected that in his closing remarks.)
Trump either didn’t know the answers (and often ignored the questions), had nothing worthwhile to say that I noticed … or blatantly lied about and denied things that everyone knows are true (eg Charlottesville did happen and he did call our troops “suckers and losers” when he was in Europe). When he wasn’t answering the question asked, the question was put up on the screen while he talked.
Quite simply, I want nothing more than to see that smirk wiped off Trump’s face in November. And I pray a vote for Biden doesn’t ultimately give us a Pres. Harris. I’d rather I desperately want to see a younger not-Harris Democratic nominee.
Okay. That’s it. I watched. It was about what I feared.
Correction: It was worse than I’d feared.
It’s time to take away Grandpa’s keys.
Glad I couldn’t watch it down here !
Lucky you! You missed the days of advance hype and now, poor dear, you’re going to miss out on the weeks of analysis, navel gazing, consternation, hand wringing. sleepless nights, etc.
Disaster, that’s what it was. Surely there must be an articulate person who could take up the banner. How about Joe Manchin? How about Joe Scarborough, an independent and a former Republican. If ever there was a time to break the mold and take desperate measures, this is it. The electorate has changed radically, politics needs to change with it. A new face would also take care of the Kamala Harris problem too, and it is a problem.
Yep, complete, total, unmitigated disaster. I’ve no idea what can or should be done and the wound is still too fresh for me to read the follow-up press reports. I don’t know what happened between the State of the Union address and last night but the whole world saw what we saw and if ever there was a time for the best and brightest Dems to step up and speak up, this is it.
There is a big difference between the SOTU and the debate: there was no teleprompter for the debate.
Good point. But his demeanor was so different. Like he’d aged 10 years since then. They said he had a cold, but that sure doesn’t explain what I saw last night.
I have been thinking about the letter that I want to send the White House all day. I think that President Biden is a competent, moral, and empathetic man who has done the best he can to improve the life of ordinary American citizens. He is also old. Too old. Like, the age of the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of some of our youngest voters. We are facing an unimaginable threat from the right, and I want a younger, savvy, mentally agile person in office who can continue the work. It is time for him to pass the baton.
I could’t agree more although I’ve no idea how, at this point, the Dems go about choosing a different nominee. Delegates to the national convention have already been chosen and are pledged to Biden. How does the nomination go to someone else, and in time to mount a good campaign? I’m still trying to comprehend how a man just 4.5 months my senior could have looked that senile last night. It’s all so disturbing on so many levels …
I agree with most of what’s been said here and only want to add one new thing to consider. What about the people who are responsible with rehearsing and training President Biden before the debate began? Those people had to see what was going transpire on the night of the debate.They HAD TO SEE what was going to happen. It’s obvious to me that their allegiance to the Democratic party superseded anything else and I have no reason to believe that any of the other Biden affiliated people are anymore interested in the truth than those who allowed this travesty to happen.
Maybe he was just exhausted from too much preparation and trying too hard to learn a bunch of specific responses? Maybe he was just exhausted? He’s never looked that incoherent either before the debate or since. Tom Friedman admitted in the New York times that he actually wept during the debate and I think I did too. It was devastating to watch.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dxtoy_N-ozNw&ved=2ahUKEwiZ06Xg6ICHAxVDPEQIHdteAlUQo7QBegQIDRAG&usg=AOvVaw2WMGzfKe3aUuYsu0f21z4Z
Well that’s not what I intended. The point of that link was to illustrate that Joe mention deal had not made up his mind who to vote for. Whether that is the truth or not, anyone who hasn’t already decided that they would never vote for Trump I would suspect as either being a liar, a coward or a political hack.
I decided well before he even ran for office that I would never vote for Donald Trump. The way he operated as a businessman should have been warning enough to anyone paying attention.
I watched YouTube vids with my grandson, who is 8 years old. I pray the world he and his siblings inherit is free of demagogues. I’ve never felt more dread in anticipating an election than I do now. My lunch partners at work assure me that trump’s base can only shrink, but I still have shell shock from 2016.
I think there have always been demagogues … somewhere. But none were President of the United States until Trump. I’ve felt a growing dread ever since Biden was elected with Kamala Harris as his VP. I don’t know what to call what I feel now. I’m afraid what we saw in the debate was just the Biden that’s usually kept hidden. I’m afraid there’s no good way to replace him with a younger well-qualified not-Harris candidate who can assuredly beat Trump. I, too, still have shell shock from 2016. Could that many Americans really support Trump? Really believe what he says, despite all the evidence of what a crook, con man, and malignant narcissist he is?
To put all of this into context, if Biden is the Democratic nominee and is in a coma, I’ll vote for him
No matter how it shakes out, if the Dems have a nominee, he, she, they, or it will have my vote.