Trump Shockingly Normal In Debate
The second (and final) presidential debate tonight was as different from the first as it could possibly be. That will likely be the biggest takeaway for both the press and the public. President Donald Trump -- for the most part -- actually behaved himself and didn't try to dominate every single minute. Joe Biden debated the way he really wanted to in the first debate. It was, in a word, normal. Which is why this will be the big headline tomorrow, because whenever Trump does anything even halfway normal, it is big news.
Heading into the debate, the big story was that the microphones would be muted for the first two-minute answer from each candidate. No interruptions would be possible, in other words. But for the most part, this turned out to be largely unnecessary, due to Trump behaving like an adult (for a change). Now, perhaps it was the threat of being muted that reined him in, or perhaps his advisors sold him on the idea that if Biden were allowed to talk he'd just blither on like an idiot and Trump would win the debate. Either way, Trump did behave himself for at least the first two-thirds of the debate, although he did get a bit interrupt-ey at the end.
This allowed for a free exchange of ideas, or at least a free exchange of prepared talking points. In other words, a fairly normal presidential debate. Tonight was much less exhausting to watch, and much more civilized. So I'd have to say the big winner of the debate was the American voter who had tuned in to watch.
NBC's Kristen Welker was the moderator, and she did a fairly good job all evening. This was aided by Trump acting like an adult, of course, because Welker didn't have to contend with the dozens of interruptions that Chris Wallace did in the first debate. But even towards the end, when Trump and Biden began talking over each other and Trump did try to interrupt anything Biden was saying, Welker still did not let things get too out of control. At some points during the evening, she did largely lose control of the subject matter, as the candidates went off on tangents rather than sticking to her original subject, but this is also fairly normal in a normal presidential debate. Welker did an excellent job of setting the pace, moving the discussion along to new subjects even when Biden and Trump wanted to argue about some detail or another. The debate ran over by five or ten minutes, but that's nothing new either.
How did each candidate do tonight? Well, both were actually getting praise immediately afterwards, if that's any measure. Trump was praised for not being Donald Trump from the first debate, and several commenters said Biden gave the best debate performance they had ever seen.
My impression was that the debate -- just as a debate, as a bit of political theater -- was mostly a draw. Biden (of course) had the facts on his side, and Trump (of course) told so many blatant lies that the fact-checkers will be up late tonight, but neither one of them really dominated the evening. Neither one of them deployed such a devastating line that it'll be repeated for years to come (as, for instance: "You're no Jack Kennedy"). Neither one really fazed the other much at all, except for short moments. Because of all this, I seriously doubt this debate is going to change many voters' minds. Trump may have managed to stop the slide he's been experiencing in the polls ever since the first debate, but it's doubtful he'll actually turn it around and start winning voters back. Biden's main job was to run out the election clock and not harm his own candidacy in a big way tonight. He cleared that bar pretty easily, I thought.
Trump tried to strike a theme tonight, which he's tried before. Stated plainly, it would be: "Joe Biden is a politician who'll say anything to get elected, and he had eight years as vice president and didn't get any of this stuff accomplished, so why should anyone expect anything different if he gets elected president?" Trump returned to this line of attack again and again throughout the evening. For the life of me, I have no idea why Biden didn't counter this with: "You are president right now, and you've been president for four years, so all of this is happening on your watch -- what have you done about it?" That would seem to me to be the correct and rather obvious counterargument, but Biden didn't really fully make this case. To be fair, this was at the heart of many of Biden's answers on specific issues -- that Trump has failed to fix all of these problems, and he has no plan. So Biden did indeed make this argument, just not as a direct response to Trump's: "You had eight years."
Before I get to specific moments from my notes, a standard disclaimer: all of these quotes were hastily jotted down and may not be word-for-word correct, but I think I've caught the general feeling (and I'll change anything I got massively wrong when I see the transcript, I should add).
The night kicked off with a discussion about the COVID-19 pandemic, and Trump's response to it. According to Trump, everything's peachy and there's nothing to be worried about. We're "rounding the turn, rounding the corner," and "it will go away." According to Joe Biden, though, "we're about to go into a dark winter" with the pandemic. Trump responded that there would be "no dark winter at all." This sums up both positions well -- Biden knows there is a problem, he can see it is getting worse, and he's got a plan to do something about it, while Trump continues to just wish the whole thing would go away and stop bothering him. According to Trump, "we're learning to live with it," after which he implied once again that Gold Star families were the reason he caught the virus. Biden's response was one of the best of the night for him: "People are learning to die from it." Biden also had another good line toward the end: "I'm going to shut the virus down, not the country."
Trump essentially said teachers and others should just go back to work because not too many of them will die from the disease. Biden pounced on this, pointing out that Trump was basically saying: "All you teachers out there -- not that many of you are going to die." Biden followed this up with one of his trademark: "C'mon, man" dismissals (which would return repeatedly throughout the night, as it is a Biden favorite). Biden also got in (after Trump trashed Anthony Fauci once again) a line he's been using on Trump for a while now: "Americans didn't panic -- he panicked."
Trump showed a little irritation, unprovoked, about the fact that he's being so badly outraised by Biden's campaign. He tried a line out that is pretty bizarre (that he's been using in rallies) about how he could just call all the C.E.O.s up and demand money from them, but that he wasn't going to do that. But his annoyance at being so badly beaten by Biden was pretty evident.
We then were supposed to get a segment on elections, but it quickly devolved into a debate about Russia. Trump threw all kinds of baseless accusations about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden making millions of dollars from Russia, to no real effect (Trump would try to bring this up again multiple times throughout the night, also to no real effect). Biden calmly pointed out that a Trump bank account in China was just revealed in the press, and challenged Trump once again to produce his tax returns. Trump made the wild claim that he only owed $750 in taxes ("a filing fee" he called it, which is simply not true) because he had "prepaid tens of millions of dollars" in previous years. Of course, without his taxes to back this up, there is no way to tell if Trump is just making this up out of thin air. Biden did catch Trump in one nonsensical position, when he pointed out that the subsidies Trump has been paying to American farmers comes from taxpayer money, and not from China. Trump didn't really have an answer for this, of course.
Biden did try a pivot in the midst of all this, speaking directly to the camera: "This is not about my family or his family -- it's about your family." Biden then ran down the list of what average families actually care about and worry about, instead of the malarkey Trump was spreading. Trump then mocked Biden for caring about American families, saying: "C'mon, Joe, you can do better than that." This is not exactly a good look for voters, to have their daily concerns mocked by a presidential candidate, by the way.
There was a brief segment on North Korea, then we moved on to healthcare. Welker asked Trump what he would do if the Supreme Court overturned Obamacare, and Trump gave his fantasy version of events: "I terminated the individual mandate," so "it is no longer Obamacare." Once again, he promised a "brand new, beautiful healthcare plan" if the court strikes Obamacare down, which he has been promising (and not delivering) for roughly five years and counting.
Trump got downright delusional, at one point, insisting: "We're going to win back the House," which is pretty laughable, at this point. Then he tried to attack Biden for wanting to wipe out private health insurance.
[Aside: I was furiously transcribing, but I believe Trump's microphone was actually cut off at the end of this segment, because Trump had gone over his allotted time. Welker had warned that this could happen at the start of the debate, but this may have been the only time it actually did.]
Biden calmly pointed out that he was the one who was against socialized medicine in the Democratic primary, which Trump just essentially ignored. Trump kept insisting that not only would Biden take away private health insurance, but that his "socialized medicine" would also somehow destroy Medicare. This is downright bizarre, because Medicare actually is socialized medicine. That's why the Democratic proposal to socialize healthcare is actually called "Medicare For All." But whatever....
[Another aside: To show what a good boy he was, Trump actually praised the moderator for doing a good job during this segment. Again, the headlines tomorrow will read: "Shocking Surprise: Trump Behaved Normally."]
Towards the end of this segment, the conversation veered off to how the stock market was doing, and Biden made an excellent point: "Real people don't live off the stock market." Ordinary people just aren't that affected when the billionaire class rakes it in. Trump then claimed "everyone's 401K is doing great," which further showed his cluelessness (since not every family has a 401K). Trump then tried to turn it around saying: "He doesn't come from Scranton!" after Biden referenced where he was born. But Biden was the clear winner of this exchange.
On a question on the minimum wage, Trump tried to have it both ways, since apparently he had recently said he "would consider" a $15 federal minimum wage. Trump started out by essentially making the argument that there should be no federal minimum wage at all, saying he'd prefer to leave it to the states. Welker pointed out that he had recently said he'd consider it, and Trump flip-flopped in the space of about eight words, starting with "I would consider it," and then immediately going back to explaining why there should be no federal minimum wage at all, and that the states could take care of it.
Immigration was the next topic, and Trump rolled out his golden oldies: Coyotes! Cartels! Gangs! Murderers! Rapists! Very bad people! He took no responsibility for the 500-plus children whose parents cannot now even be located by the federal government, insisting that "they are so well taken care of."
Biden, by contrast, knocked this issue out of the park, promising a pathway-to-citizenship bill within his first 100 days in office. Biden explained what "catch and release" meant (letting families go with a promise to come back for their court date, which most of them do), while Trump falsely ranted that "only one percent of those people show up" and then just insulted the ones who did, by calling them "really... those with low IQs." You could tell Trump was going to use a different word there, but he changed his mind at the last second.
Biden's best moment of the night came when he was asked about racial problems. He began by pointing out that his daughter is a social worker who works in an area that is 90 percent Black. He then pointed out a hard reality -- that he had never had to "have the talk" with his children about what to do when pulled over by the police: "hands on the wheel, don't reach into your glove box so you don't get shot," which every Black child in America is taught by their parents. Biden's answer was good for several reasons, obviously.
Trump then accused Biden of using a term in the 1990s that was actually uttered by Hillary Clinton ("superpredators"), which Biden challenged when he got a chance. Trump hauled out another golden oldie -- how he was the best president since Abraham Lincoln (and who knows, maybe the best president ever) for Black Americans. This is so ludicrous it is just laughable, but Trump loves to make the claim. He also made another favorite claim, that he was "the least racist person in this room." Biden shot back: " 'Abraham Lincoln' over here is the most racist president in modern history." Trump then freaked out a little bit because he didn't understand why Lincoln was being brought up like five minutes after Trump brought up Lincoln. And Trump thinks Biden is senile? Please.
Biden did make one strong statement during this segment, that the bill he helped pass in the 1990s on drugs "was a mistake." He stated: "Nobody should have to go to jail for drugs" (I will have to check the exact wording on this, but I really thought he should have said -- or possibly meant: "for possessing drugs"). Biden talked about how the idea of "drug courts" that put people into treatment rather than jail was the real way forward.
The final major segment was on climate change and the environment. This was also approximately where Trump reached the end of his "I'm being a good boy" rope, because he started reverting to "first debate Trump," interrupting everyone in sight and making wild and inaccurate claims. Biden insisted that he "never said he was against fracking," to which Trump responded: "You did!" Biden challenged Trump to find the tape and put it on his website, which Trump promised he'd do. It'll be interesting to see if there's any follow-through on that one.
Trump was asked about people living close to oil refineries having to deal with lots of pollution, and he insisted that everyone who lives near an oil refinery is "making tons of money" and was therefore just fine. Except that if they were making tons of money, then they would probably move somewhere else, obviously. Biden knocked this one out of the park too, telling of growing up near chemical plants and having to deal with their pollution as a kid.
Trump thought he scored a knockout punch here (to mix my sports metaphors) by asking Biden if he'd "close down the oil industry." Biden responded: "I would transition over time" away from the industry with clean energy jobs taking its place. Biden didn't phrase this as well as he could, and Trump all but promised that the line would soon appear in his ads "in Texas and in Pennsylvania." Which will probably happen, although the mere fact that Trump is having to advertise in Texas is its own statement about his chances, really.
The two were both asked a final question about leadership: what would they say at their inauguration to voters who didn't vote for them. Trump claimed "success will bring us together" and "Biden will kill the economy," without really answering the question. Biden said he'd be a president for everybody whether they voted for him or not, and that the election was about the "character of this country." And then, thankfully, the evening drew to a close.
As I said at the start, I doubt any of this will change any voters' minds. Unless they just woke up from a five-year coma or something. Biden had a good debate, but I didn't think it was his best one ever (I'd rate his one-on-one debate with Bernie Sanders earlier this year higher, in fact). Biden had the facts on his side, while Trump lied his face off repeatedly. Trump even repeated lies he had told at the first debate that have already been fact-checked (the easiest example: it was Hillary Clinton that used the term "superpredators," not Joe Biden).
It was a normal debate. It was so normal it even got downright boring at times. But this will be the big headline tomorrow, because tonight's normalcy was about as different from the first debate (which was memorably called "a hot mess, inside a Dumpster fire, inside a trainwreck") as can be imagined. I don't think either candidate had any sort of "game-changing moment," although Trump might have stopped the bleeding in the polls he's been experiencing since his first debate. All Biden really has to do at this point is run out the clock (which has already run out for the 47 million people who have already voted, by the way). Trump was the one who really needed a game-changer tonight, but the fact that he acted like a normal adult rather than a petulant child is just not going to do it for him.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Biden's debate performance was fine, as per usual. :)
"Your own hand-picked Attorney General had this nonsense thoroughly investigated and, guess what!? He discovered that your attempt to smear me and my son was, wait for it ... complete nonsense or as I like to say, a bunch of malarkey! So, stop with the nonsense!"
No, Biden didn't say that. That was me yelling at the TV. Ahem.
LizM -
I think I'm going to have to start using "malarkey" a lot more when writing... which is a shame, because you know how fond I am of using "moosepoop" instead...
Heh.
-CW
Oh, yeah, I forgot to point out that this was the first time I think I've heard the term "Bidencare." Think it'll catch on?
:-)
-CW
"You and your team are in court right now trying to pull out all the stops in order to - and this really sounds insane but it's true - to take away peoples' healthcare - in the middle of a pandemic, for God's sake, and an epidemic that you have so heartlessly and incompetently mishandled that we are on track to see 400,000 of our fellow citizens dead by the end of the year!!!
And, more insane still, you don't have a clue much less a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act that you are trying to terminate. How can you do this and be called the president of the United States of America!!!"
Not Biden. It's me, again.
I like the sound of Bidencare.
Moosepoop, malarkey - I say use 'em both, interchangeably and whenever the opportunities present.
Neither one of them deployed such a devastating line that it'll be repeated for years to come (as, for instance: "You're no Jack Kennedy").
That Biden can't come up with a devastating attack line against Trump, of all people, is endlessly mystifying to me. I just don't understand it.
Oh, yeah, I also forgot to mention the one Biden gaffe from the night: "minimum mandatories" instead of mandatory minimums. But it really wasn't that bad, as these things go...
-CW
LizM [8] -
It's by design, I think. Biden is trying to "restore civility" so attacking Trump would detract from that theme. I think.
-CW
Chris,
Biden's main job was to run out the election clock and not harm his own candidacy in a big way tonight. He cleared that bar pretty easily, I thought.
Sorry to say but, I couldn't disagree more vehemently if I really wanted to. (picture Biden flashing his pearly whites here)
Biden's main job tonight was to make it crystal clear to voters - all who haven't yet voted, that is, most overwhelmingly of whom are Republican voters, one could surmise - that he is the candidate who is actually capable of making their lives better by, among other things, putting a comprehensive national plan into action to get a very controllable virus under control so that people can get back to their lives and livelihoods. I don't believe I heard any hint of such a comprehensive national plan to control the virus from either candidate this evening which is mind-boggling in the extreme.
It's by design, I think. Biden is trying to "restore civility" so attacking Trump would detract from that theme. I think.
Well, that is a bunch of moosepoop! Ahem. :)
You don't think my attack lines were civil!?
Does Biden want to win this thing, do ya think?
"You say, 'You were in office for eight years and you didn't do it.' This is a good time for voters to remember that we can't start to undo this latest Republican mess unless Democrats control the House and Senate. Do y'all remember Moscow Mitch in 2009 said that 'Making Obama a one term President was his priority.' It wasn't getting America out of this mess."
"Remember that when your voting for House Representatives and Senators. If you want the car to go backwards, you put it in 'R.' You want the car to go forward, forward to a more perfect union, you put it in 'D.'"
No one knows how to attack ideas or lack thereof rather than the person better than Biden NOBODY! At, not better than the Biden I knew ...
"Remember that when your voting for House Representatives and Senators. If you want the car to go backwards, you put it in 'R.' You want the car to go forward, forward to a more perfect union, you put it in 'D.'"
Indeed!
Biden needs the House and Senate cause he ain't got SCOTUS.
Notice how when Trump attacked Joe's family Joe didn't point out how Trump's kids are making out like bandits in China and elsewhere?
I think this was a shrewd move on his part. Sometimes it IS appropriate to fight fire with fire, but Joe demonstrated that taking the high road made him look more mature, more Presidential.
[15]
Ah, but Joe will add a couple/three Supremes to rebalance the SCOTUS. We cannot allow a Repug packed court to stop progress.
Biden also had another good line toward the end: "I'm going to shut the virus down, not the country."
This was a pretty good attack line.
Biden could have gone on and on and on ... "Some of us have learned what is necessary to control this virus and none of it is rocket science. We are talking about basic public health measures, testing and tracing that, if they had been put in place from the beginning of this crisis back in January, would have saved tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of lives. There was not a national plan of action in January or in February or even in March and April. There is not a national plan to control this virus even today! Why is that Mr. President! Where is the plan that will save American lives and livelihoods!!! How long must we wait for you to implement a national strategy to save the lives of our fellow citizens and get our economy back on track!?"
MtnCaddy[17],
Ain't gonna happen.
Chris,
For the life of me, I have no idea why Biden didn't counter this with: "You are president right now, and you've been president for four years, so all of this is happening on your watch -- what have you done about it?"
Me, neither. I just don't understand it.
"Americans don't panic! -- he panicked."
Another great Biden line that should resonate with a few people who haven't yet decided but, probably won't.
[Aside: I was furiously transcribing, but I believe Trump's microphone was actually cut off at the end of this segment, because Trump had gone over his allotted time. Welker had warned that this could happen at the start of the debate, but this may have been the only time it actually did.]
I believe you're right about that. But, it happened for only a microsecond or two.
It was funny to hear Trump talk about how the sky was going to fall and how the economy would collapse and the stock market would wither if Biden were to be elected.
I guess he didn't get the memo that Wall Street has already baked in a Biden victory. The markets will probably rise modestly the day after a Biden victory and beyond.
Let Trump put THAT in his pipe and smoke it.
Yes it will. Remember how Obama bought his own "bipartisan" fantasy and kept the Stimulus Act under $900B and didn't add a Public Option to Obamacare?
And remember how this half-stepping resulted in massive Repug gains in 2010?
Joe has always kept himself in the middle of the Democratic Party. The Party is moving left and Joe will follow if he doesn't want the same results.
"Hope and change" was bullshit because Obama was such a pussy. I hold Obama and the Establishment Democrats responsible for Trump even having a prayer in 2016.
[22]
I noticed it, too. Trump shut his mouth the second he realized his mic was cut.
The oil industry has no future. This is what Biden essentially said and he was right.
And, this might very well have lost the election for him.
Trump even repeated lies he had told at the first debate that have already been fact-checked (the easiest example: it was Hillary Clinton that used the term "superpredators," not Joe Biden).
Biden could have fought back on that pretty easily without mentioning any names. Ahem.
He could have just said, "Hey, man! I never used that term. It's not in my DNA. You're confusing me with someone else and this presidential campaign with your last one. Try to live in the present!"
Funniest part of the debate was when Trump said that no one, nobody has done more for the Black community other than possibly Abraham Lincoln than I have done for the Black community.
And, then Biden said, "Abraham Lincoln over here ..." and then Trump gets all indignant and says I never said I was Abraham Lincoln ...
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
[26] Elizabeth Miller wrote:
The oil industry has no future. This is what Biden essentially said and he was right.
And, this might very well have lost the election for him.
Don't be silly. Everybody with a brain knows we have to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Joe didn't lose a single voter with that statement.
Those idiot coal miners can buy into Trump's fantasy world but their coal jobs ain't coming back.
Well, MtnCaddy, let's just hope that the Lincoln project is at work as we speak on an ad to counter what will be coming Re. Texas, Oklahoma, etc and the oil industry!
He then pointed out a hard reality -- that he had never had to "have the talk" with his children about what to do when pulled over by the police: "hands on the wheel, don't reach into your glove box so you don't get shot," which every Black child in America is taught by their parents.
OK... I hate to break it to you but not every Black child is taught that — not that they shouldn’t be taught it... but it’s a little hyperbolic to claim that EVERY Black parent gives their kids this info. One of Devon’s former co-workers who is Black thought we were making up “the TALK” and were just trying to trick him...because he had never heard of it and said that all his parents told him about the police was that if he ever got arrested, he was on his own b/c they weren’t bailing him out. Granted, this was about 6 years ago, but he seriously had no idea what “the Talk” was!
I’d hope every parent has this talk with their kids. Hell, my grandfather WAS a police officer and was the one who wouldn’t let us play with toy guns and whupped my butt when I pretended my fingers were a gun and pointed it at adults I did not know. I was taught from an early age that if someone mistakes my toy gun for a real one, I could be killed. If an officer thinks you are pointing a gun at them, figuring out your racial background really isn’t a high priority!
After 90 minutes of listening to Trump's gobshitery, I came to the conclusion that it fell 30 minutes shy of my vision of eternity in hell.
I limit my exposure to Trump's spoken word as much as possible in deference to all those poor buggers to whom a pre-existing condition is more than just an involuntary twitch every time Trump regurgitates a porkie.
By minute 45 I found myself trying to explain to my tv that I wasn't interested in the 35-year-old Gran Torino hatchback despite its assurance that the odometer was in fact at 300kmi and not 743kmi, regardless of what my eyes were telling me.
I snapped out of the Trump salesman gesticulation mind trick, rolled and smoked a joint to gather my senses and fed a juicy goldfish to my Piranhas, stopping briefly to name it Donald, a name it didn't have to live with long.
Let it not be so much as breathed that I'm without compassion. I could have named the creature weeks ago, subjecting it to cruel and unusual punishment, like that which I found myself enduring with Trump and his bullshit bazoo, seemed hollow and petty in relation to winding up in a room relative in size to a MacDonalds with two mindless, hideously fanged killing machines the relative size of a Bull Elephants on 'bath salts'.
I digress.
Riddle me this for a lark; Trump spent the last few days, and a few stump stops bemoaning the last debate's 'unfairness and how it was biased and Biden skewed and how mean and inept the moderator would be' and all manner of unTrumpian things unkind. Can he now claim he won, hands down, an event he has already dismissed as hoaxy and rigged? Or should it just be shrugged off as symbolic of the greater disconnect that defines Trump's struggle with reality and his supporter's apparent ambivalence to that struggle?
No matter, Biden carried the day and indeed the entire portion set aside for debate, one could almost feel the collective 'mopping of the brow' wafting from the DNC corner. The Trump corner and its waftings are of no consequence, Trump's body language seemed to suggest futility and the embrace of defeat.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
LL&P
Day-yam! That's some solid writing there, James T Canuck.
Elizabeth Miller
28
Funniest part of the debate was when Trump said that no one, nobody has done more for the Black community other than possibly Abraham Lincoln than I have done for the Black community.
And, then Biden said, "Abraham Lincoln over here ..." and then Trump gets all indignant and says I never said I was Abraham Lincoln ...
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
I know, right!? Me and my crew couldn't stop laughing. Is Trump really so damn dumb that he didn't realize Biden was making fun of him for continually and constantly comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln over and over ad nauseam!? "I never said I was Abraham Lincoln!" *laughs*
*
Seriously... a whole lot of what was covered in Thursday night's debate reminded me greatly of a White House lawn rant wherein many of the identical topics were covered. It was so downright creepy and all so eerily familiar. #SSDD
Lincoln Project Mourning in the Republican Party.
K, it's 0215 LCT*, time to hit the sack. G'Nite everybody.
Sweet dreams of a Democratic Trifecta!
*Left
Coast
Time
Trump's makeup and hair often tend to be ...unsubtle?....but last night was off the charts. His face had the color and texture of an orange....and his hair looked like cotton candy. High Def TV is very unforgiving....but he should expect better optics from a $50,000 tax deduction. On the plus side his Muppet look deflected attention from all the lies and half truths he spewed.
The mute switch threat - and a very effective moderator - kept the event civilized. Will it have any measurable impact on the voters.? I'm guessing no. Debates are are just a little ritual we make up....like Thanksgiving or All Star games.
Biden gave a soild performance, which was all needed to accomplish. The Republicans will attempt to manufacture an oil gaffe from the fact that there is only so much commercially viable oil and gas in the ground. A gaffe is just an unhappy truth.
i thought joe's answer on the court system was very good. keep in mind, just because republican leaders have been acting in bad faith on judicial appointments, that doesn't mean all republicans are a monolith on the issue. they support their leaders packing the courts now out of fear that we'll do it next. remove that fear and the sane among them will work with us to undo the damage.
There is a historical precedent for Trump's use of flamboyant makeup - cue Elizabeth I:
https://miro.medium.com/max/603/1*cfBZ0Ed7NnkvM3iI-QARnQ.png
[38] TheStig wrote:
Trump's makeup and hair often tend to be ...unsubtle?....but last night was off the charts. His face had the color and texture of an orange....and his hair looked like cotton candy.
Great description, TS. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing this yard sign in my neighborhood, but a friend sent me this link: Trumpkin Yard Sign.
So this is the long dark tea-time of regrets from the day before.
America, I don't envy your choices. I find them both equally inequitable and shortsighted.
If you really wanted to do yourselves a favour, agree to openly discuss the Elephant in the room before she turns 80... You guessed it, The Military-industrial complex.
This viper in your bosom underpins all your socio-economic concerns, for now, it's happily grazing on your healthcare-for-all dreams, unchecked it might develop a taste for other public institutions.
Wasting billions on traditional arms is redundant when you reach the point of stockpiling. The US currently enjoys a 1:1 ratio with the next ten countries combined in aircraft carriers, the most spendy of all military hardware. What's most telling about American military thinking is, it's two strongest adversaries have 10% of their might...Why the obvious discrepancy, it's simple, it's way cheaper and more effective to design military hardware to rub things out than it is to replace them. Which of course, both the Russians and Chinese have done.
If you can bring your dog to heel, you could put a serious dent in universal healthcare affordability.
LL&P
If we describe Trump as "lying", that assumes a certain type of mental competence. I'm not sure the concept of true and false is in his repertoire. Maybe we should call it deep kayfabe instead.
What?
It's been hours since I posted a Lincoln Project video, this one called Men.
For Lindsay Graham, Big Spender.
For Florida, Mourning in Florida.
For Latinos, Remember El Paso.
Y en español, El Dicta Trump.
And finally, Would the Lincoln Project have Supported Bernie Sanders?
You're welcome!
[43] A bit tame for these brutal times...
How about 'Demagogic Bukkakery'?
*warning* refrain from googling 'bukkake' on your communal home computer. It might become that moment when it all inexplicably went south between you and your loved ones.
Hindsight is a dreadful thing, best to cut off at the pass in the here and now...
LL&P
Hey, everybody!
Remember Keith Olbermann? From the halcyon days of him and Ed Schultz on MSNBC?
Here's a little trip down Worlds Worst... Memory Lane.
Today's word, boys and girls, is "bukkake."
Trump has announced he's booked the Vogons for a poetry recital to close his inauguration celebrations, seems they offered to anchor the show at no cost.
Just vote.
LL&P
[47]
You misunderstand, that wasn't meant to be used as a clarion call. Sloganeering is about less descriptive lingo.
Blunt is good, blunt-force has to be tempered to accommodate a general audience...
;)
LL&P
MyVoice
Oh, my goodness, MV... time for a round of "Name That Tune."
So we're watching the "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" on Amazon Prime (right now), and Borat is invited to the home of two "Einstein" QAnon nutjobs that are attempting to explain the coronavirus to him. Music begins playing, whereupon Borat picks up a skillet/frypan and begins banging it on the wall attempting to kill the virus.
Your hint is: Cowbell.
Name That Tune!
don't fear the reaper?
[50] Kick
You've got to be kidding. I've got a fever and almost anything would be improved with MORE COWBELL. So I asked Albert Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult and here are his thoughts: Albert Bouchard.
World's Worst Person #13 from Herr Olbermann.
MyVoice
52
You've got to be kidding. I've got a fever and almost anything would be improved with MORE COWBELL. So I asked Albert Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult and here are his thoughts: Albert Bouchard .
Heh. That is some epic level 'splainin' about COWBELL! Who knew?
That tune in the new Borat movie:
*
And when Borat is "killing" the coronavirus with the skillet, it sounds like more cowbell! :)
[54] Kick
Now that you mention it, I sure do. That was a great chuckle. Please... Please...
Elizabeth Miller
31
Well, MtnCaddy, let's just hope that the Lincoln project is at work as we speak on an ad to counter what will be coming Re. Texas, Oklahoma, etc and the oil industry!
The Lincoln Project won't be because there's no need. How did I miss seeing this talk about Texas!?
EM, you needn't spend a second worrying about Oklahoma; it is solid Red already and won't be flipping in 2020 or likely anytime soon.
As for Texas and the quote/unquote "oil industry," as I've discussed multiple times before when the broken record was playing the same song over and over about Biden's oil/fracking comments: Texas is a large and diverse state that isn't remotely defined by its "oil industry" to the extent that Trump, the GOP, and the rhetoric of the gullible minions/useful idiots have given "lip service" to ad nauseam. Those fossil fuel voters are "baked in" Trumplican voters already. There's little downside to Biden's statement and a tremendous upside with younger voters.
The oil industry has no future. This is what Biden essentially said and he was right.
Exactly right! The fossil fuel industry has no long-term future and is being phased out regardless what Biden says. Consider the coal industry to which Trump made a lot of promises to, and he's been unable to deliver because of that fact and nothing Trump could do would save it... nothing.
And, this might very well have lost the election for him.
*laughs* The idea that Biden's answer to that question may have cost him the entire election is ridiculous. Why would it? Because of Texas? Biden doesn't need Texas; however, Trump cannot win in 2020 without it. Because of Pennsylvania? There are only ~26,000 (give or take) oil industry/energy/fracking voters in Pennsylvania, and they're primarily GOP/Trump voters already. It's baked in the cake already. If Biden loses Pennsylvania, it won't be because of that statement.
If Biden loses the election, it won't be because of that statement about the oil industry. MtnCaddy's comments on this energy subject are dead-on accurate. :)
MyVoice
55
Heh. :)