Free Republic

A dozen of America’s most prominent mainstream media outlets have published an open letter urging Joe Biden and Donald Trump to agree to debate before the 2024 election. Letter signatories included ABC News, The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, NBC News, NewsNation, Univision, NPR, PBS NewsHour and USA Today. The letter calls on the two leading candidates “to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election." ..... Snip..... Trump has already vowed to debate Biden “anytime, anywhere anyplace,” but Biden has refused to commit.

Democrats are not enthusiastic about the prospects of President Joe Biden, 81, facing former President Donald Trump in presidential debates this fall. The apprehension sheds light on fears about Biden’s diminished physical and mental abilities, as polling shows Americans worry about Biden’s decline: Redfield & Wilton Strategies: Majority of Democrats are “concerned” about Biden’s ability. YouGov: 55 percent say Biden’s health and age “severely” limit his ability to do the job. NBC News: Most registered voters have “major” concerns about Biden’s age and health

MSNBC political commentator Chris Matthews said Tuesday on “Morning Joe” that debating rural voters over their support for former President Donald Trump was “like fighting terrorism.” Matthews said, “I tell you, it’s very tough, because people that didn’t go to college have a pretty good rage on their hands. That’s what you really want in an election, is a rage. It can be black rage, or white rage, or rural rage. In this case is rural rage. They are so angry at the liberal establishment, the coastal elite. They look at people on television, they say, ‘Oh, those people on...

Ben Shapiro gives some insightful advice on how to debate a Leftist in this 21 minute video. For instance, he uses the term Leftist instead of Liberal. He also describes socialism in one concise statement.

In my last post I talked about something I’ve been noticing recently, that people, especially pro-life nerds like me, are tempted to talk about logical fallacies all the time in conversation. There are several dangers to this. I’ve argued already that the first danger is accusing somebody of a logical fallacy when they didn’t actually commit one. If you dedicate yourself to educating yourself on what the logical fallacies actually are before bringing them up, you will be a more effective debater. But there’s a good, better, best aspect to exposing logical fallacies while creating good dialogues with people. I...

...The much-hyped Lincoln/Douglas style debate never came close to resembling the Lincoln/Douglas style … Or a debate, for that matter … It did expose Herman Cain’s inability to answer tough questions. Cain was asked about Medicare. He sat there for several seconds with a deer in the headlights look, before finally submitting with “You go first, Newt”. Translation: “I have no idea what you’re asking me. Let’s hears Newt’s answer so I can copy it.” … Cain deferred to Newt again later in the debate when he couldn’t answer a question. Gingrich was respectful in choosing not to dismantle Cain,...

Everyone knows why Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to skip some of the coming Republican presidential debates. He's a lousy debater, and the biggest single factor in his fall from front-runner to back-in-the-pack has been his poor performance in a number of high-profile debates. That said, Perry has a point when he suggests there are just too many debates scheduled in the rapidly dwindling number of days before voters go to the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other key primary states. There are at least a dozen GOP debates scheduled between Nov. 9 and the Florida primary...

Liberals have long since learned that debating Conservatives can be a challenging endeavor, since Conservatives have a penchant for fortifying their arguments with facts, statistics, history and other elements that create convincing and thoughtful argumentsNot to worry. The following are several tips Liberals can use right away to begin defeating Conservatives in every debate, every time. Lib Tip # 1: Drop the Race Card: The moment your Conservative opponent begins crafting a cogent, air-tight argument buttressed in fact, drop the race card. This technique is designed to stifle further discussion, impugns your opponent and puts him on the defensive. Often,...

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Welcome to Drexel University, the site of tonight’s Democratic presidential debate. Let’s get started with Senator Barack Obama. Senator, you’ve vowed to spend this entire debate standing on Senator Clinton’s windpipe while reducing her to a quivering mass of jelly. How do you plan on doing that? SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: Well, Brian, as you know the goal of my campaign is to make this country as noble as I am. But without casting aspersion or criticism in any direction, I have noticed that Senator Clinton, probably without meaning to, has not fully contextualized her discourse, which has had...

WHAT if they held a debate and everybody came? So far this presidential primary season, we’ve been able to watch seven Democratic and seven Republican candidate debates. Not many people, even those who like me are paid to follow the campaigns, have watched all 14 of them. Democratic debates are reported to tend to attract mostly Democratic audiences, Republican debates mostly Republican audiences. Voters who are in the middle, who do not yet feel committed to either party — and there appear to be more of them than there were in the 2004 cycle — are presumably less willing to...

WASHINGTON - Democrats steered the Senate into an attention-grabbing, all-night session to dramatize opposition to the Iraq war but conceded they were unlikely to gain the votes needed to advance troop withdrawal legislation blocked by Republicans. "Our enemies aren't threatened by talk-a-thons, and our troops deserve better than publicity stunts," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. McConnell and many other Republicans favor waiting until September before considering any changes to the Bush administration's current policy. They have vowed to block a final vote on the Democrats' attempt to require a troop withdrawal to begin within 120 days....

Here's the real debate: is it the team of Gov. Arnold Schwarzneegger or Democrat Phil Angelides who is telling the truth about upcoming gubernatorial debates? The Schwarzennegger campaign, in recent emails to reporters, suggested that the camp of Phil Angelides has been guilty of game-playing in getting a debate together. Campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson, in a recent email, slammed what she called "the Angelides campaign's recent publicity stunts, unilateral and fictitious agreements and ongoing debates with themselves in the media," saying they were "an attempt by a flailing campaign to divert attention from Mr. Angelides' $18 billion tax hike." Schwarzenegger...

WE'VE never seen anything like this, even the old Kennedy-Nixon classic great debate," said a breathless Chris Matthews on the "Today" show as he touted a poll showing that John Kerry had won presidential debate No. 1 by as much as a 4-to-1 margin. But actually we have seen something like this - and at that first Kennedy-Nixon debate. The polls may have gyrated more violently this time around, but the scenario is identical: a campaign's seemingly mundane decision about television theatrics has potentially changed the dynamic of a presidential election. Only Election Day will reveal if Sept. 30, 2004,...

Senator John Kerry came out of the first presidential debate having reassured many Americans of his ability to handle an international crisis or a terrorist attack and with a generally more favorable image, but he failed to shake the perception that he panders to voters in search of support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The poll also found significant doubts about President Bush's policies toward Iraq, with a majority of the public saying that the United States invaded too soon and that the administration did a poor job thinking through the consequences of the war. But...