Presidential Debate Thread: Take 2 (Tonight at 9 PM Eastern)

I think it’s hard for normal people to rap their head around the extreme hubris these politicians have. Why would an 81 yo want to run for president anyway, let alone a 2nd term? He’s got a son freshly convicted on felony charges that could probably use his support. He has other kids, a wife, and grandkids. If I’m fortunate enough to make it to 81, I would hope to have lived a rewarding enough life that I don’t need to run for POTUS at 81

I get it. He stepped up in 2020 and saved democracy. That’s not a bad legacy right there. Why wouldn’t he want to ride off into the sunset and enjoy what remaining years he has left, instead of putting the entire country at peril by running again?

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How’s that

He beat Trump in 2020

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Yeah seems like they never really groomed Harris to be a successor, like she didn’t have much high profile accomplishments or publicity. They really should have been putting her out there more to sink or swim as a public figure, and have had a plan to move on in 2024 with a different running mate if she sunk. I think she’s enough of an unknown to most voters to be salvageable but it’s a huge risk, and she’s not going to develop charisma if she doesn’t already have it at this point.

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I don’t think any VP has ever been groomed to be a successor other than maybe Dick Cheney.

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The way this timeline is going it seems like we would almost have been better off if Trump won in 2020.

We’d be saying goodbye to him this winter.

Yeah, I know people think that he would just keep on going, but I don’t think he would have been able to pull that off.

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No one is getting groomed for anything imo. The VPs job is to balance the ticket in exchange for some increased name recognition.

I can’t tell if you really think that Dick Cheney was being groomed to be a successor or you just forgot a ‘not’ somewhere in there.

“Groomed” is subjective, but I’d categorize the last several like this

Kind of Groomed – GHWB, Gore
Mostly not Groomed – Cheney, Pence, Biden

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Cheney came is as a person who was really running the show iirc. So he wasn’t really groomed, but it was understood that he was handling a lot of other stuff in a way that other VPs haven’t. VPs are more about optics than picking someone who is going to be a good successor.

Right.

That’s a take I have not yet heard or ever thought about, but you might be right

Agree. Also made a small addition to my prior post.

I think it was very clear Cheney was running the show. I also don’t think anyone expected Cheney to run for Pres ever. He was weird in that regard as VP is most often someone who was also trying for the main job. Cheney never was.

He could still run. (Plus he’s younger than both candidates)

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I’ve never bought the idea that if they pass over kamala then they lose in a landslide. Nothing could make a middle-aged basic bitch white guy like me sound dumber than presuming to imagine how black people would feel but if I were a black guy the idea that Well obviously that guy’s not gonna vote if we dump kamala, that might be sorta insulting. One of the last unifying issues of our time is feeling underwhelmed about kamala.

the vanity of biden’s human centipede pit crew for enabling and hiding him and rolling their eyes at us for a decade to stfu and let the adults cook—like really? At these stakes? they’re a gang of plaid sociopaths. TFW you get legit roasted and high-roaded by culture diarrhea like fox and r/conservative because they were more right about biden’s actual condition than you were. Makes you wonder what other assumptions you need to start kicking the tires on. But then I was also surprised by how few republicans fled maga on principle. This, and still all the supreme court stuff friday was arguably worse. It’s gotta be whitmer or somebody new, gavin will fucking lose. I don’t know tons about whitmer but she’s always seemed like one of our only candidates who was potentially awesome. But don’t mind me I’m still trying to process how half the democrats are like “sore throat” and “one data point” and “people will forget” and “it was bad but it wasn’t that bad.” well that’s true, it was worse! And will go down as one of the most collectively humiliating nights of our lives and if we lose will be seen as a historical fork in the road

“But don’t you see, trump is worse” yes we do, that’s why we’re losing our shit. “oh look at you wetting the bed again, don’t be weak” what? that one is such a bummer, acknowledging reality isn’t weak, the republicans got here in large part because nobody had the guts to stand up to walmart caligula. “Sorry there are rules” oh cool is this when we finally start torching those

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GHWB definitely not groomed for VP.
Gore, nah.

Basically no one selects VP for that reason, except probably FDR dropped Wallace and replaced him with Truman to be his successor, not because he loved Truman, but because too many influential people didn’t want Wallace.

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Quayle was being groomed imo.

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Eh. Reagan picked GHWB for balance because he was from the liberal branch of the party and then GHWB picked Quayle for balance because Quayle was a conservative.

Cheney was maybe the most unusual pick as I don’t think it was really about winning votes. How could it be? (Truman wasn’t really about votes either, but that wasn’t as crucial a consideration for FDR’s 4th term).

Dems gonna do something stupid like nominate Liz Cheney and Joe Manchin

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