Posted on 09/30/2020 6:21:08 AM PDT by lasereye
President Trump came into Tuesday night’s debate trailing both nationally and in key battleground states. The debate gave him the largest audience of the campaign and provided him the first real opportunity to press his case against Joe Biden and shake up the race. Instead, it ended up as a blown opportunity.
Right out of the gate, Trump pursued an aggressive strategy of interrupting Biden, speaking over moderator Chris Wallace, and launching a flurry of attacks.
At first, one could perhaps see a method to his madness, as Biden seemed frustrated and rattled. At one point, an exasperated Biden snapped, “Shut up, man!”
As the debate wore on, however, the constant cross-talk and interruptions and arguments with Wallace overshadowed the debate. Nobody will remember any of the actual details of the debate. They will just remember it being a chaotic mess.
In all of his interruptions, Trump, despite his reputation for being a master at messaging over the TV medium, lost chances to damage Biden. He often set up attacks only to fall back into repeating phrases that didn’t communicate to outsiders what he was talking about.
Trump, if he had one goal, was to establish that Biden, despite his centrist image, would ultimately be beholden to the radical Left. However, he never clearly explained this point.
For example, when he said that Biden would usher in socialized medicine and lead 180 million people to lose health coverage, he didn’t offer details. Had he taken a breath, he may have been able to point out that Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, explicitly said during the primary that she wanted to eliminate private coverage. Or, Trump could have explained how the purpose of Biden’s plan to add a government-run “public option” to Obamacare is to migrate to a socialized health insurance system over time. Instead, Trump just started shouting about socialism.
Biden, explaining his plan, falsely claimed that his public option was only limited to those poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. “Anyone who qualifies for Medicaid would automatically be enrolled in the public option,” Biden said. “The vast majority of the American people would still not be in that option.”
Yet Biden’s actual healthcare plan says the public option would be made available “whether you’re covered through your employer, buying your insurance on your own, or going without coverage altogether.” Rather than apply to a small number of people, in other words, the option could eventually replace every form of private insurance that exists.
Instead of explaining this to voters, Trump interrupted Biden with statements such as, “Joe, you agree with Bernie Sanders, who's far Left, on the manifesto we call it, that gives you socialized medicine.” But what sort of voter who is learning about Biden’s healthcare position knows what Trump was referring to?
Trump then interjected multiple times during Biden’s same answer with pointless political analysis. When Biden denied supporting socialized medicine, Trump replied with, “You just lost the Left” — a silly comment given that the whole point of this line of attack is to convey that Biden would be beholden to the Left if elected. Trump then said Biden got lucky in the primaries because “if Pocahontas would have left two days earlier, you would have lost every primary.” What does that sort of punditry, and potshot at the increasingly irrelevant Elizabeth Warren, do to advance the ball for Trump? And why was it so important to make this comment that it was worth interrupting Biden for?
There were other examples, such as on the Green New Deal and tax policy, on which Trump failed to land obvious blows because he was too busy interrupting with pointless cracks.
Another problem was that Trump’s constant barrage of interruptions threw a lifeline to Biden when it would have been better to step back and let Biden stumble over the answer.
Toward the end of the debate, Trump went down the rabbit hole of discussing mail voter fraud, Michael Flynn, the Logan Act, spying on his campaign, and so forth. While such issues may receive a “Thatta boy!” from the talk radio crowd, Trump already has the vote of those this will impress. The point of the debate was to win over undecided voters, or to convince those leaning toward Biden to give him a second look.
One could argue that the mess of the debate essentially made it a draw. Biden failed to land his planned blows on Trump on tax returns, the coronavirus, or the Atlantic story claiming based on anonymous sources that Trump referred to service members as “suckers” and “losers.”
But debates cannot be viewed in a vacuum. They must be viewed in the context of the broader campaign. And given that Trump is losing, he needed to show that Biden was too far left and too mentally unfit to be president. But Trump did not accomplish that. After months of attacks claiming Biden doesn’t even know that he’s alive, Biden exceeded that low standard by showing he could stand and debate for 90 minutes, remaining more or less composed in the face of Trump’s relentless attacks. The tie, thus, went to Biden.
If there are two more debates, something that has to be seen as uncertain after Tuesday’s debacle, Trump is going to have to change his strategy to make focused and substantive attacks on Biden. Because the status quo means that Trump likely loses the election.
Ernst Roehm won
And tweets. Trump has 87 million Twitter followers. The way Twitter lets us network is amazing. There is some mischief by administrators, but it is worth the hassle.
If I had a proper computer connection I could do more here, but I miss my keyboard.
Maybe. It’s hard to know what people really retain in their minds, and what gets discarded. But still Trump just missed on several responses.
That is it, isn't it? No one is saying much about Biden. Trump made Wallace's horrible performance the centerpiece of the debate.
And I'm really getting tired of all the nervous Nancys out there about how Trump "lost" an opportunity last night. It seems like that's all the media (and seminar posters) have: Repubs always "lose" opportunities, Dems never do...
Reagan had a horrible first debate against Mondale in 1984. There was genuine concern for his campaign after it, of course we know what happened.
Proof reading is your friend.
I have my opinion. You have yours. Get over yourself...
“For example, when Trump talked about how he had stopped travel from China and Biden had criticized him for it, he didn’t make it clear what he was talking about. If you didn’t already know about it, it didn’t mean anything.”
WTF are you talking about!? Are you saying someone watched the debate that didn’t know about the China Travel Ban!?
NO WAY that is possible.
In another reply on that thread I based my argument on the fact the Trump is vulnerable in the geography of the electoral college and therefore must believe the polls or at least the Real Clear average of polls which is about all we have to work with right now.
Bingo. Beau was going to be Biden’s knockout punch, no doubt ending in the lie about dead Vets being losers and suckers.
Trump cut his legs out asking if he was talking about Hunter getting kicked out for cocaine and then taking millions fromRussia and China.
Joe looked fit to be tied. Swing & a miss, Joe.
I’ll be just fine even if Biden wins. Can some of you say that?
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Can you elaborate?
Only nomenkultura will be *fine* if Joe wins and they will all be watching their own backs because no one survives in a communist society, let alone will be *just fine*.
Maybe you mean you won’t fret? Who can watch America die under CCP controlled destruction and decline and be sanguine?
Your job will become less secure. Your money will vanish under taxes, regulations and inflation. What is called health care will be ObamaCare on steroids. Your neighborhood or community will either become destructively diverse, ruled by vindictive Karens, or will wither. Your children will become indoctrinated with a future defined by conformity.
I will not be *fine*. Neither will America.
Almost out of the box Trump discovered that he was being tag teamed because Biden was allowed to lie and Wallace tried to interrupt when Trump called him on his lies. Keeping inside Biden's OODA loop meant keeping jabbing at Biden so fast that the team on the other end of the wire couldn't keep up.
Yes it was a shit show. But Wallace and Biden and his handlers set it up to be a shit show.
Even if you did not like Trump’s performance last night, it was nowhere near as bad as Reagan’s in that first Mondale debate. He must have not been feeling well.
...Proud Boys...
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They are quite diverse. I’ve even seen a large Samoan-looking guy.
They are not instigators and do not harm property or cause collateral damage.
What, we cannot have American defenders against Antifa?
Incumbent Presidents always seem to “lose” the first debate.
Trump blew it. He looked angry the entire time, and didn’t smile at all. He didn’t win over votes and he needed to.
I don’t understand how you can spin this.
Yup. Trailing by at least 1,500 points out of 947 registered democommies queried. Guess the Bekins trucks will be all lined up 1/19/2021 on Penn Ave. Or NOT!
Agree completely. Trump proved he is a pugilist who will land rapid blows against anyone trying to take him down. Happy to have him on my side. The problem is everyone out there trying to find the angle to take him down. As near as I can tell, there is no angle. That's the guy want dealing with the CHICOMS.
Would it be better is somehow Trump could be like Barr and take down folks with a clever phrase like the classic "was that before or after the fires were put out?" but parlor room quips don't win negotiations against countries with nuclear armaments.
Biden and Wallace set it up to be a dog-fight. In a dog fight you have to turn inside the enemy. Ander there were two of them
Almost out of the box Trump discovered that he was being tag teamed because Biden was allowed to lie and Wallace tried to interrupt when Trump called him on his lies. Keeping inside Biden’s OODA loop meant keeping jabbing at Biden so fast that the team on the other end of the wire couldn’t keep up.
Yes it was a shit show. But Wallace and Biden and his handlers set it up to be a shit show.
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Absolutely.
agree...
anyone who sees my posts here knows I hate the commie/marxists more than anyone alive but what i saw last night was a disgrace all around. Do you know what men like Lee or Washington would think of what we witnessed last night? (rhetorical question)
While I do not think last night swayed anyone one direction or the other... I think the die is already cast for what is to happen to this country in the near future, Trump squandered a tremendous opportunity, was extremely off-putting and did not do himself any favors at all. Yes, I will vote for him, but do not think for one second that this man is the league of America’s greatest men (Lee, Washington, Jackson, etc.)
flame away, people... IDGAF...
Did you notice the spot CNN poll on the debate this morning include Spanish speakers (i.e. non-citizens) and overweights Dems over Republicans, I think it was 39%-24% ?
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