General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Embarrassed His Country and Himself
Ive watched a lot of presidential general election debates. This was the first time that I spent much of the time hoping that the feed to foreign nations was somehow disabled, because what we saw Tuesday night what President Donald Trump did on Tuesday night was so deeply embarrassing to the nation. Whether it was the constant interruptions, or the refusal to condemn right-wing violence, or the false claims about the voting process and how they undermine the democracy, or the steady stream of false statements, or the habit of casting blame on anyone and everyone except for himself, or the wild conspiracy-theory rantings, Trump spent 90 minutes demonstrating how hes not fit for the office he holds.
What he did not demonstrate is that he has any grasp of the U.S. government or public policy. At one point, former Vice President Joe Biden he was there too, he did fine said of Trump: He has no idea what hes talking about. I think it was about absentee voting, but there was hardly any evidence throughout the debate that Trump has learned, well, anything. Climate? Nope. Health care? Nope. Even the stuff that he supposedly is running on. Policing? His basic message is that anything bad is the fault of Democrats and that he could easily handle it if it wasnt for them. But not only does he have no detailed plan, he cant even talk about crime or law-enforcement in a way that demonstrates he has any understanding of the issues.
Trump claimed, as he has many times before, that voting by mail is full of fraud. It isnt. Once again, he made a meaningless distinction between states in which ballots are sent to everyone automatically and states in which voters must request them. And once again, all his examples of supposed fraud were from states Pennsylvania, New York, and others that fall into the latter category. Its a nonsensical distinction to begin with; experts have found no problems at all, as Biden pointed out, in the handful of states that send everyone a ballot. Trump, on this topic as on everything else, never demonstrated that he knows more than what a typical viewer of a third-rate partisan talk show would know.
Debates are typically useful for two reasons. They are a ritual of democracy, and they are a high-profile venue for making promises. Debates involving Trump barely qualify on either count. The ritual part of it is undermined when one of the candidates doesnt appear to believe in democracy. Ill put up with debates that feature a lot of squabbling and heated rhetoric; democracy doesnt have to always have good manners, and its sometimes good when it doesnt. Indeed, Biden didnt exactly showcase civil etiquette Tuesday night. He interrupted a fair amount (although, as moderator Chris Wallace pointed out, not nearly as often as Trump), and he certainly didnt show the respect for the presidency that many challengers have chosen to display on similar occasions.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-09-30/trump-biden-debate-brawl-embarrassed-the-u-s
captain queeg
(10,170 posts)He deserves no respect. He is a tin pot dictator wanna be.
Illumination
(2,458 posts)North Shore Chicago
(3,312 posts)yankeepants
(1,979 posts)My god, Joe showed all the respect it deserved. If I was was on that stage I would have punched that orange bastard in the face. Presidency my ass.
Illumination
(2,458 posts)the whole debate! Joe telling Trump to "SHUT UP" was well deserved! It was out of control. Someone should have just put Trump in a straight jacked & hauled him away to the Psych Ward!
bucolic_frolic
(43,128 posts)or it sounds like it to me. I didn't watch. I see no sense to debating Trump, nor ruining my evening and week watching him.
The remaining wrestling matches should be cancelled. Trump is just there to stomp and preen. He has no substance other than enhancers to bring to the arena.
pazzyanne
(6,547 posts)I watched the entire debate and have not been able to get a wink of sleep all night. It was extremely frightening what was coming out of the pResident's mouth. Telling the white supremacists to stand back and stand by. Really! The Commander in Chief commanding a militia group to be ready?
RestoreAmerica2020
(3,435 posts)..stand by. What the fuck does that mean?
Where's Michael Cohen when we need him --so he can explain pendejo's code break down what the fuck he's talking about.
Then something that Joe said about "smart" damn donnydimwit went off the rails--something about dont hou ever say smart to me. Yes not watching would have been best.
Frump had a bigger platform to spew his lies, propganda racist dogwhistles scare the beejeebers out of decent folk keep people from going to the polls, send in ballots, suppress the vote-- in the end-- he just showed what a liar, racist and a know nothing about anything--damn the guy hasn't changed in almost 4 yrs--still same ole fuckwit.
True Blue American
(17,984 posts)I sat down in the Lazyboy, covered up, it was raining, fell fast asleep about 7:30. Woke up just as Mike Wallace sat down and found myself totally happy at Joe Bidens self control in the midst of the ranting and raving.
As Pollster Luntz said last night. Trump won the debate, lost the independents.
I disagree Trump won the debate, agree on the rest