Election 2020

[Eric the Green]

(09-30-2020, 12:29 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(09-30-2020, 05:31 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(09-30-2020, 02:37 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Did anyone see the debate?

I didn't watch live, but picked up a few highlights after.  A few thoughts.

• Trump took an established institution and did his best to trash it.
  
  
• The rules didn't seem to apply in Trump's mind to Trump.
  
  
• The result was chaos.
  

All of this doesn't contradict Pbrower's post, which I can't argue with.

My thought is that Biden shouldn't do other debates without some modifications to enforce the rules agreed to, and perhaps applying some lessons picked up from COVID.  Three separate studios with the microphones and cameras of the candidates turned off when on the other guy's time.  If the candidates speak longer than the allocated time, their closing statements get shorter by the length of the overrun.  After there is overrun greater than their closing statement is planed for, no closing statement.

This seems necessary.  One chance for Trump to show himself being Trump is likely enough.  The results would perhaps distinguish between Trump and Biden presidencies.

I don't fault the moderator. Chris Wallace played it straight, but Trump overpowered him. It would be appropriate to cut the microphone of Donald Trump when Joe Biden is speaking and vice-versa. This debate is far from the measured contention of a high-school debate; it's more like a taping of the Jerry Springer Show, except that no chairs are flying and there are no accusations of marital infidelity. There needed to be a referee capable of establishing sanctions for a lack of integrity on the game. Even in a team sport there are sanctions against a cheater. Penalties called for improper play can decide an NFL game, and a pitcher caught throwing spitballs will be ejected.  

Chris Wallace tried to be fair... but there is no subtle way of stopping a speeding locomotive. Maybe the other participant could have buttons to press to give a lighted response such as "lie", "cheat", "wrong", "extreme" or "disloyal" as opposed to such an interjected word such as "Liar!". 

This was more like a boxing match than a debate. Boxing is brutal, but even it has rules. Break those rules as egregiously as Mike Tyson biting the ear of Evander Holyfield, and the match is over. When someone breaks the rules so egregiously as to make a mockery of the event, then the person who does that typically is adjudicated as the loser. Donald Trump figuratively bit Joe Biden's ear.

Excellent suggestion to cut the mics off when the time is up, or at least if they go over by more than a few seconds so they can finish a sentence. Worth sending emails to the election commission or wherever. Chris Wallace did a great job to talk over Trump when he wouldn't stop. He didn't take anything from the drump. I wonder who is willing and able to step forward as referee next time. It will be tough. Maybe Rachel Maddow might be his match, or Chuck Todd. I wish Terry McAuliffe was the Democratic candidate. He knows how to take Trump down. But Biden did OK I guess.

Black men do sometimes fall for the free-market trickle-down theory once they become "uppity," as Clarence Thomas called his fellow traitors at his 1991 hearing. There are the Kanye West, Ben Carson and Herman Cain types out there, indeed. Hispanics will continue at about 30% Republican support, with the majority correctly regarding how their brethren are being abused and their need for a government of justice for all. But the Cubans, they are still eager to beat Castro, so they vote Republican. 

Florida is always a crap shoot, and we Democrats lost in 2016 and 2018. This year the pandemic's mismanagement and threats to health care and social security are cutting into elderly white support for Trump and Republicans. It will be close, and cheating by the Republicans is always a threat. They imposed a poll tax on felons after they were voted eligible to vote by a wide margin by the people. But Bloomberg and others are trying, against stiff bureaucratic resistance, to pay their fines.