Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The First 2020 Presidential Debate Was Nasty, Brutish and Long

 https://time.com/5894588/presidential-debate-analysis-chaos/

It did not take long for the first presidential debate of the 2020 general election to spiral totally out of control. President Donald Trump simply would not stop talking—badgering, heckling, taunting and sniping at both his opponent and the moderator. Finally, Joe Biden could only blurt, “Man, would you shut up?”

Trump, of course, did nothing of the sort.

It was, in a way, a perfect metaphor for the Trump presidency: two professionals sighed and remonstrated and strained to enforce the rules, while Trump gleefully ignored them and refused to back down, putting on a show of dominance and creating a fact-free haze that made substance hard to discern. It wasn’t pretty, but had you landed fresh from Mars knowing nothing about American politics—lucky you!—you would have gotten an accurate sense of both candidates’ dispositions, if not their policy positions.

“That is simply not true,” Biden kept insisting, as Trump called him an idiot, smeared his family and concocted wild conspiracy theories about everything from the Obama administration to the upcoming election. “It’s been totally discredited.” Yet neither the Democratic nominee nor Wallace managed to wrest back control of the proceedings, and Biden struggled to land sharp attacks on Trump’s weaknesses.

1 comment :

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrR4Bn7Rmqs&ab_channel=GreendaleSeven

    It's the power of suggestion. Trump went in with his game plan and played it perfectly. He flustered the moderator and made him look impotent. He put Biden in a position where any reasonable person would have lost his temper but instead Biden, trying to stay calm, looked like he was unable to do more than helplessly, quietly bluster. What will people remember? Trump's loud accusations or Biden's less loud "No, not true" replies?
    And no matter what regulations they'll bring in for the second debate, it'll be the same thing. Like hillary 4 years go, Biden is campaigning and Trump is playing a game. Americans like a good game and they like a winner. He's positioning himself to be the Hulk Hogan of American politics and let's remember that Hogan was one of the longest lasting professional wrestling champs.

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