2024 US Presidential Election (Taylor's Version)

If this debate happens and Biden is good, or even adequate, he should provoke Trump into backing out of the others.

Hell Iā€™d be mildly surprised if Trump doesnā€™t back out of this one.

Havenā€™t presidential debates always been without pre-written notes? And Biden was just fine last time. Not sure how this is ā€œadvantage Trumpā€.

Iā€™m also not convinced the microphone thing is a Biden advantage. Trump interrupting with lies, outbursts, and blabbering hurts him. He might come across as respectful for not interrupting Biden, whereas Biden gets no points for not interrupting. Nor can Biden interrupt when Trump is rambling on lying incessantly, and I doubt the moderators will check him often enough.

I probably shouldnā€™t be analyzing stuff written by Cillizza for clicks.

I donā€™t see how the no notes thing benefits Trump either. Heā€™s completely clueless on policy and is just making up stuff on the fly, so yeah, notes donā€™t matter. Except there have been instances of Trump literally holding on to handwritten notes telling him to say this or that. I donā€™t recall those instances with Biden.

During the last debates, Trump getting his mic cut looked horrible for him. He came across like a petulant child.

The first debate is usually bad for the incumbent because theyā€™re actually running the country and have had 4 years of adulation coming into it.

That said, who fucking knows with Trump. Heā€™s absolutely high on his own supply and thinks Joe is a demented corpse. Also he has deteriorated massively since 2020 and is of course delusional. Also he will be ranting about insane stuff incomprehensible to people outside the Newsmax circuit.

That said it wonā€™t matter at all, itā€™s just too far out from Election Day. But anything that gets Trump visibility to normies is a good thing.

I wish they would cancel all debates, they are stupid and donā€™t serve any useful purpose as far as determining who would make a good President is concerned.

Putting Trump in front of normies instead of at his rallies without the media to filter away his stupidity is really important.

In a normal-ass society with functional adults I think the debates are important. As it is, idk I think maybe itā€™s not worth the risk of Biden having a brain fart and confirming all the rightwing ā€œBiden has dementiaā€ nonsense.

I donā€™t know if that happens now, though. The debates get filtered through your media of choice regardless. I there is just as much downside for Biden on that front, too, but maybe for different reasons since he just looks feeble. If we were in a different situation, like the Dem candidate did not have one foot in the grave, then I might agree. Generally speaking, though, I still think debates suck.

Weā€™ll see how it actually is implemented, but I donā€™t see this as a situation where heā€™s going to be talking, and then will be interrupted or his mic will simply be cut off, which I agree looks bad for Trump. I interpret it as his mic will be turned off when Biden is speaking, and therefore he wonā€™t have the opportunity to interrupt and have his mic cut, and thatā€™s why I donā€™t think the rule disadvantages him.

Although I suppose you could have a situation where he just keeps rambling on a response and the mods say his time is up and cut his mic and turn to Biden. But I think they will feel pressure to not do that.

I think the biggest risk with the mics is a situation where Biden stops talking b/c Trump is ranting and audible to Biden, but the rant is not picked up well on the mic so it just looks like Biden is constantly freezing up/losing his train of thought/responding to something other than the question.

3 Likes

Regardless of cause, o/u 3 ā€œsenior momentsā€ for Joe?

Canā€™t wait to see Joe stumble over words while Trump babbles incoherently.

I am not looking forward to this. Just pure brutal agony with no hope for anything other than complete soul crushing disaster.

6 Likes

I was worried about the state of the union and he knocked that out of the park, so I am resting my small hopes on that.

1 Like

Biden about million years old and at any point could have done something career ending yet here we are so I think he going to continue to ride the hot streak

1 Like

I feel debates are one of the few times voters get to see the candidates unfiltered. More than 70 million people watched the 2020 debate, which is just crazy to me, but itā€™s like half of all voters.

1 Like

Yeah, I mean basically it comes out one of two ways:

ā€“Trump looks like a clown and Biden does well, Fox/Newsmax/etc. all declare Trump the unequivocal winner and all his fans believe it, no person on either side changes their mind.

ā€“Trump looks like a clown and Biden does OK but misspeaks a couple of times, every major news outlet shows clips of it nonstop, Trump loses zero support but Biden loses a couple percent of support from casuals and is fucked.

3 Likes

I guess where I think I might disagree with you is that it is an unfiltered look at the candidates. They do tons of prep for it and know the topics if not the specific questions. But even if it is an unfiltered look, im not sure if I think itā€™s valuable because itā€™s not really providing insight into their governing abilities. Like, can they sit in a meeting and pay attention to the topic that they are being briefed on? Can they ask important follow-up questions? Can they delegate work to competent staff? Stuff like that is what I think matters outside of basic policy positions and I donā€™t think a debate really puts any of that on display.

Most voters arenā€™t paying attention this early. The debates are really for the media to consume, driving the framing of their coverage of both candidates going forward. Biden already suffers from a disconnect between reality and how he is covered. Can debates really make that worse?

1 Like