Posted on 08/04/2020 4:28:14 AM PDT by karpov
Televised presidential debates have been forcing future leaders of the free world to sweat since Richard Nixon in 1960. Six times President Obama went mano a mano with Republican opponents in 2008 and 2012. But Joe Biden is leading President Trump in the polls and has been known to fumble his words, so now TV debates are apparently passé.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three of them for Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, beginning Sept. 29. But it’s becoming a theme in certain quarters—namely, the New York Times —that Mr. Biden should skip out, or that the face-offs should be canceled. The latest entry is an op-ed by the liberal journalist Elizabeth Drew, who was a panelist during a 1976 debate. “The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership,” she writes, because points are awarded for “snappy comebacks and one-liners.”
What a terrible year to make this argument. The pandemic has put the usual political rallies on hold, so fewer voters will see the candidates in the flesh. The conventions will be largely online. Press aides will shape the news coverage by picking friendly interviewers. Mr. Biden “hasn’t done any Sunday shows since Covid,” Fox News’s Chris Wallace recently said, adding that “we will ask every week.” The debates will be a rare chance for a third party to push Mr. Biden on his plans for tax increases and a Green New Deal.
Also, Mr. Biden would take office at age 78, becoming the oldest President in history on Day 1. Mr. Trump is all but calling him senile, and Mr. Biden’s verbal stumbles and memory lapses were obvious in the Democratic primaries. How about when Mr. Biden mistakenly referred to Britain’s leader as Margaret Thatcher, who resigned in 1990?
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
It is not a matter if Joe is willing to perform in a debate, he is not mentally able to participate in a debate. No one has an control over dementia.......
Haven’t seen or heard much from Joe, but he does seem a bit better which makes me believe that he’s on one of the Alzheimer medications that provides temporary improvement.
Of course if true, this should be revealed to the public, but it won’t be.
Whomever he chooses as his running mate, will be president when his dementia forces him to step down.
Having witnessed my father die from complications of vascular dementia, I can easily see the stepwise decline in Biden’s mental capacities. He’s moving beyond mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to full dementia. Trump and the American people must demand a full medical report on Biden, including neurological evaluations and the list of medications he is being administered to treat the mental deterioration. I can see the DNC trying to get away with this farce, but is his wife so corrupt that she won’t call a halt?
When do most candidate debates happen?
Isn’t it getting pretty late in the game? And he hasn’t even declared a VP pick yet
When did hilLIARy pick that hand puppet she chose? That nobody certainly added ZERO enthusiasm to her campaign
After the party conventions.
Neither side has anything to gain from the debates and both sides will avoid them completely if they can make it look like the other side was to blame.
If his Demonicrat nurses help him to show up, by the time the first debate is scheduled to occur, Vegetablejoe may have descended into a level of dementia so much he wouldn't even be aware that he is in a debate.
It’s a lose-lose for Joe Biden.
Refusal demonstrates they think he can’t debate.
Debating proves he can’t debate.
‘If his Demonicrat nurses help him to show up...’
have nostrils, will debate...
‘It’s a lose-lose for Joe Biden.’
really...? I’d say Trump has nothing to gain; he himself has set Biden’s bar so low he wins just by showing up...and if he starts ridiculing the old man, the optics are going to be pretty bad for the emotion driven crowd...
Answer: Yes. Next question.
Demented Joe: “I don’t debate bad orange men.”
Crowd: Goes wild with glee
I’m not sure Trump would riciule Joe.
I think Trump would just give coherent answers and let Joe ramble.
Still, this isn't a spelling bee contest. This is the platform for candidates to demonstrate why they, and not their opponent, should be the Leader of the Free World. The man with his finger on the nuke button.
Even if gropey joe was a "severe Conservative" I would still want him to demonstrate the basic competence to sit in the Oval Office.
Obvious dementia aside, the Biden camp might be waiting to see if John Durham has anything coming out in September.
I remember Biden’s debate with Paul Ryan in 2012. All he did was laugh like a clown at everything Paul Ryan said. He didn’t even attempt to engage intellectually.
Then tactic worked . . .because he was debating Paul Ryan. It would not work against President Trump.
I predict about 5 days before the 1st debate there will be some phony outrage over something President Trump said and was deliberately twisted out of context. Then Biden will back out of the debate in “protest”.
Biden has changed since the last debate with fellow Dems.
He is slipping each day. He also does not look well.
Even if he shows up, some states will have already started voting before the first scheduled debate
*sigh* every election no matter who is president we hear this rumor along with “they wont leave if they lose”
getting too old, I guess, tired of the same ole same ole.
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