Because it’s their second term, they are on the defensive because this election is a referendum on Trump. He’s been an abject failure by any standard and there’s no relief in sight for anyone. Pence is doing what he can right now to secure his own political future. The legitimate worries were not assuaged in any way. And that’s ultimately why Pence “lost”. Because he failed to achieve what he needed to. And tomorrow morning when everyone forgets about the debate, the president will tweet unhinged crap and we move on. I appreciate Harris treating him that way. I think a lot of people don’t. Old school sexists often don’t like women like her. A sassy smart black woman standing up for herself? Michelle Obama tried to get people to eat healthy and the pitchforks came out.
Joy Reid brought up the point that Pence's main responsibility in this debate was to "soften" the Trump ticket for suburban white women. Trump can win white men on his own, and will never win black women, but there are some votes out there among the white soccer-mom crowd who are uncomfortable with Trump but could be convinced to stay if they are "reassured" by the bottom of the ticket. Pence being rude to the moderator in a way that a lot of women (especially professional class women) have experienced did the opposite of what Trump needed him to do.
My wife was visibly annoyed at the way Pence treated both the moderator and Harris. She works in the oil industry and it’s full of men who talk to women that way. The smarmy condescension and failing to adhere to the rules angered a lot of women tonight. I challenge anyone to recite a single question Pence answered tonight without looking it up, but I bet you’ll remember Harris reminding him that she was talking. It had impact.
trump is crazy and Biden is “safe.” In the middle of a global pandemic, you don’t elect the crazy candidate. Too risky. He was basically a protest candidate in 2016, and though I don’t agree with it, I get why people voted for him them. Today, many of those people no longer have jobs, lost family members, have had their lives turned upside down. Can’t afford to take that risk anymore by gambling with your vote, and trump needs not just his base from 2016 to be willing to gamble again, but he needs more people to join. I just don’t see that as a realistic possibility. People are tired, and want all this to stop. A candidate who defers to the scientists sounds like a lot more reasonable choice today.
Talked to my dad today. He said he was voting for Biden. A huge change for him and I hope it sticks. His reasoning is the poor handling of the pandemic and also the way he behaved at the debate last week. Because my dad is Fox News/Facebook boomer, his exposure to Trump is different than the rest of the world. Doesn’t see the tweets or CNN. So he only gets the best highlights. When he saw Trump behave like a retarded 5 year old, it knocked something loose.
Apparently there is a 30+ point loss in seniors voting for Trump. Go figure... telling the world "meh, let them die for the economy" has an impact. And now he's out doing videos pumping up the latest vaccines, and promising them to the elderly for free. Go figure.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313959702104023047?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1313959702104023047|twgr^share_3 Dude is pumping brand names like he's a NASCAR driver. "Especially if you're a senior, we'll get you in quick" "we'll have a vaccine before the election" lol
I think one of the most tone deaf things he said was to not let it take over your life. As we are shoveling bodies into refrigerated trucks, he gets free fucking fetus juice like Christopher Reeve in South Park and tells everyone to just power through.
So the debate commission moved to make the upcoming debate a virtual town hall and Trump backed out of it. It gives the moderator much more control over Trump’s mic. Not surprising. Saying he wants to do a rally instead. This leaves Biden with 90 unadulterated minutes to talk to voters. But I’m also compelled to see a rally where Trump is gasping for air on tv. If he actually follows through with that as well. ♂️
The problem with Harris is that she is a shitty fucking person and people can’t seem to remember this. She certainly was no friend to the black community or ANY community when she served as the tonedeaf California AG and she kept people in prison who were entitled to release. Fuck that two-faced cunt. I swear if it were legal she would eat her own young.
I remember saying something about republicans abandoning democracy when it starts to not work in their favor.
Direct democracy which the democrats are pushing for in the rhetoric, In abolishing the electoral college and even more laughable doing away with the senate, is not what the framers wanted when they set up a representative republic. They only push for these things because ensures their continued power and nothing else. If the dynamic switched and the popular vote favored republicans they’d drop the point mighty fast. Same goes for illegal immigration if the future citizens demographic voting patterns flipped to republicans? Build that wall.
We are nowhere close to a direct democracy, nor is anyone advocating that we become one, and the anger at the Electoral College and Senate is because they make us an unrepresentative republic. The United States has set up, or advised in the creation of, democratic systems of government from Germany to Japan to former Soviet states, to Iraq and elsewhere, and we've never pushed for an electoral college for any of them, because even we know it's a god awful idea that didn't work. Hell, most of these countries don't even have a Presidential system at all, but rather a Parliamentary one. Also, no sane country has given their upper chamber the kind of power the US does. In Germany the Bundesrat is far less powerful than the Bundestag; they certainly don't have the power to completely stack the courts the way the US Senate has done. In any event, Mike Lee is an idiot, and the whole "We're not a democracy, we're a republic" thing is only ever said by idiots.
Looking like BOTH candidates had a few true, a few false....and a lot of misleading answers. This surprises no one. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/07/us/fact-check-harris-pence-debate
The moderator asked like eight questions to each candidate. Harris dodged seven and Pence dodged eight. At one point I think Pence answered a question about Roe v. Wade with a treatise on ISIS. It was a very uninformative debate. But then again, I've already submitted my ballot, so it's not like I'm watching this debate to be informed in the first place.
Is anyone’s mind changed by the debates? I thought it was all so people could get sound bites and get angry at the TV.
Debates have become a weird exercise in hate-watching them in order to peer into our scrying crystals and try to interpret how the five neuronless morons in this country whose minds are somehow still not made up will judge the debate performance.
Oh, I watched it, you speak total truth. A few times Pence would thank Susan and just keep on with his narrative. A few times he did that, but then actually said a few words on the actual question. He definitely over spoke. Plus...that fly. Wow, the jokes. I am not a fan of Harris as a person, but she was more respectful of the debate format. She told some tales, too. I think that she held her own.