I'm inclined to agree, I think Trump will pull out claiming his water was drugged , he was given less time etc. as the excuse to not do the second debate. He will claim he won the debate (while all the unfair things was done to him) anyway but he does not want to support the fake news channels etc.; then will go of and have a "debate" on one of the sycophant channels instead. His MAGA crowd will lap it all up but the rest of the voters (esp. the independent) will not be impressed by Trump in this debate. I also expect Biden will get at least two country/date/state or similar mixed up in some form which the Republicans will latch on to as proof that he's demented while ignoring Trump's inability to even give a coherent argument. That's my prediction.
Agree, though to this point
He won't be able to shout out "zingers" or try to drown Biden out , he'll just have to give responses to each topic/question.
Trump will absolutely still try to drown Biden out & whether the mic is on or not he'll be heard, no question. I can't remember: how did this version of the debates go in 2020? Presumably about the same as you speculate
Was that the case in 2020? I remember there was that "Shut up man!" incident where Biden had to shout at his opponent.
Pretty sure this is the first time that they will be actually disabling the microphones when it's not the candidates turn to speak.
Trump will of course try to shout and interrupt , but not sure how effective that will be - He might just end up being this muffled back-ground noise which may end up making him look even more "unhinged" to the independent voter.
Trump does not do well where he is expected to stick to a theme/script especially without a prompter.
He will be asked something like "What are your plans for the economy?" and without any bullet-points he will struggle as he absolutely will not have any substantive detail to share and in the 5 minute or whatever speaking slot he has for each question, he will be rambling about Electric sharks , Windmills and shower pressure after 90 seconds at best.
I saw a great analogy about the choice between Trump and Biden from a former Bush Admin advisor.
If you want someone to house sit your home and you have two elderly men you have to choose between," Dowd described. "You have to pick one: One, this guy named Joe Biden who is elderly. He may forget to turn the porch light off, and he may take a nap or two. But he's going to water your plants and feed your dog. Donald Trump, the house sitter, will kill your plants, sell your furniture, and kill your dog and probably let the burglars in so he could split the profits on whatever the burglar is going to get."
Pretty much nails it.
This analogy works well for me, though it's about undecided voters:
Well, Biden would probably forget to water the plants and feed the dog as well…but still.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Where to go with both parties in defensive mode over their candidates, with one candidate using his own media site to attack the suitability of the other while moaning about other failing media sites "fake news" before the debate of the year?
Given Trump's stalking behaviour at the debate between him and Clinton, and the reported restrictions imposed on him by the host channel tomorrow, I expect a similar play by Trump for his fanbase as it's live TV, him gaslighting Biden to create an excuse or incident to "excuse" his walking off the stage away from the host and Biden and a follow-up broadcast on "Truth Social" giving his version of what happened at the CNN event [though the debate will be fully recorded interference and manipulation free by dozens of TV and media sites world-wide] as he is unable to differentiate between truth, reality and his lies.
If Biden under performs, even if he spends 90 minutes spouting rubbish Trump will claim a victory. If Biden does a state of the union on it, Trump will declare that the setting was against him from the start, that he wasn't allowed to respond adequately, that no president has been treated as badly as him since the big bang happened.
I'm going to have my popcorn ready.
Good idea. If HE starts acting up, throwing the popcorn at the screen won't damage it.
I'd be surprised if the true fragility of Biden at his age with his very obviously declining physical and mental attributes are not shown up tonight.
For the record I have no issue with Biden's policies or this term as president. I just think he is too old and frail.
Trump is old too, of course, but he's not visibly frail to the degree Biden is. He'll have far more energy and no matter what craziness he might say optics like stamina and strength matter in political leadership in the US like few other countries.
You can only be trying to convince yourself with this post. You've spent years shilling for Trump and this is the end result. Trump can't count the number of world wars, thinks people should inject bleach, incited a fascist coup and last time I checked, was wittering on about sharks or something.
All true, but CFTRump looked much better than Biden in the debate, which is all that matters. Carter made Ford look like an idiot in their final debate based on Ford's famous gaffes. Biden looked much worse, and I've watched both those debates.
Biden made CFTrump's run much easier and loads of campaign material available now making Biden look bad.
Just a depressing morning. Could tell in the first 15 minutes Biden was doing poorly and it didn't get better.
I'll take your word for it.
There's months to go. It's hard to see any serious person decide that Trump is going to be a better president.
I will jump for joy to be proven wrong. Just depressed this morning, that was ugly. I guess "Be careful what you wish for" comes true yet again. CFTrump lied, and gave little rally snippets all evening long, and brushed off attempts to call him up on them.
The polls are going to be ugly. Biden did nothing to get the 'progressives' on side, either.
Looks like we get another 4 years (minimum) of Trump being the most powerful man in the world.
I'm not sure debate performance matters that much in the grand scheme of things but it's certainly far from ideal.
It's impossible to actually debate someone who's entire repertoire is just brazen lies and invective. CNN did a fact check dump on Trump afterwards which unsurprisingly revealed he barely made one true statement but it's too late then.
CFTrump only lies. Got him elected once and continues to do well for him. It's not CFTrump -it's Americans. Tens of millions of them are fine with his lies. A real time fact check during the debate might've helped some, but not with Biden stumbling and mumbling his way through it.
If CFTrump wins, much like in 2016, this is on the Democrats. What I think will happen is that CFTrump will surge ahead in the polls and, if he listens to his advisors, just play it quieter going forward. It'll be his election to win.
I don't know what Biden will do. Get him out there more? How did that work last night? Being asked about the economy shouldn't have been a fumble - all CFTrump did was lie, Biden could've and should've picked that apart.
Same here. I think it's very possible that Trump can win due to the anti-democratic system they have. It's hard to see how this will change many people's minds.
I thought the primaries were over. Why are there debates if the primaries are yet to be decided?
in fairness Trump couldnt even build a wall in 4 years. doesnt scream "most powerful man in the world" . im sure some mid level dork in China got whole cities or mag Lev lines built in the same time
I think to some extent CFTrump baited Biden into debating. I might very much be wrong - maybe Biden wanted to capitalize on his convictions ("I hear you're free Wednesday.") Whatever it was, hindsight shows it was a terrible idea.
IMO the election was Biden's to lose until last night. CFTrump appeared to be falling apart and his message was starting to resonate less. Now he's got the momentum and it'll be exploited. I can easily see him skipping the next debate - he may clearly be in the lead, why bother? That's worked well for him before, and the old debate committee's been shown the door.
Biden will have to win this one selling his story directly to the public. Damn but Newsome would've been such a better candidate. Or Harris.
Do you really think that Biden could lose on the basis of last night?
Edit: Genuine question btw.
Primaries are over, but the nomination convention has not happened yet.
It is an unusually early debate.
And with better quality (at least their houses take a decade or two to fall over unlike Trump's section of the wall) but what's more worrying would be he gets a good chance to replace Alito and Clarence in the supreme court (we can only hope they don't die during a Republican reign).
Trump will be the real debate loser from last night, as the Democratics now have time to regroup and dump Biden and find a way to beat Trump. This is a masterclass from the Democrats.
Last night, Trump just ensured the Oval Office will be MAGA again.
Worth noting that in this election realistically, how many minds weren't made up and waiting on this debate? Both are known quantities and ex presidents; both their … well let's fall them foibles are already well known and noted.
I can't see how the debate would have shifted the needle in any great direction outside of those armchair Politics Watchers; I can't see how actual voters would have been persuaded either way.
Ironically, the very early debate could prove a blessing in disguise for the Democrats. It gives them more than enough time to make a radical change to the nomination.
that would be going against the will of the people and it would be anti democratic, Biden is great behind closed doors
The hope would be that the small number of undecideds might vote Biden after Trump was terrible, but that definitely won't have happened there. Not saying they'd vote Trump, but nothing Biden did last night will have swung anyone blue.
