First presidential debate (9 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

Since we usually have a separate thread for these
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NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden begins an intense period of private preparations Friday at Camp David for what may be the most consequential presidential debate in decades.

The 81-year-old Democrat’s team is aware that he cannot afford an underwhelming performance when he faces Republican rival Donald Trump for 90 minutes on live television Thursday night. Biden’s team is expecting aggressive attacks on his physical and mental strength, his record on the economy and immigration and even his family.

Trump, 78 and ever confident, will stay on the campaign trail before going to his Florida estate next week for two days of private meetings as part of an informal prep process.

The former president’s allies are pushing him to stay focused on his governing plans, but they’re expecting him to be tested by pointed questions about his unrelenting focus on election fraud, his role in the erosion of abortion rights and his unprecedented legal baggage.

Thursday’s debate on CNN will be full of firsts, with the potential to reshape the presidential race. Never before in the modern era have two presumptive nominees met on the debate stage so early in the general election season. Never before have two White House contenders faced off at such advanced ages, with widespread questions about their readiness.

And never before has a general election debate participant been saddled with a felony conviction. The debate-stage meeting comes just two weeks before Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial.

“You can argue this will be the most important debate, at least in my lifetime,” said Democratic strategist Jim Messina, 54, who managed former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.

PRESSURE ON BIDEN


The ground rules for Thursday’s debate, the first of two scheduled meetings, are unusual.

The candidates agreed to meet at a CNN studio in Atlanta with no audience. Each candidate’s microphone will be muted, except when it’s his turn to speak. No props or prewritten notes will be allowed onstage. The candidates will be given only a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.

There will be no opening statements. A coin flip determined that Biden would stand at the podium to the viewer’s right, while Trump would deliver the final closing statement.


The next debate won’t be until September. Any stumbles Thursday will be hard to erase or replace quickly.………..

How Biden and Trump are taking very different approaches to preparing for next week's debate

President Joe Biden is beginning an intense period of private debate preparations at Camp David. His trip comes as officials in both parties scramble to set expectations for what may be the most consequential presidential debate in decades.

apnews.com

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

I am a Christian who tonight went to Sunday 6pm Worship Service. I took my niece and 2 nephews with me. They are/were first time visitors.
So I am an Uncle who neglected his live in relatives today to post NUMEROUS posts. I posted MANY posts. Yet I MUST stay online all day and night? I must?
I have living with me right now.... my wife's sister, her husband and their 3 children.
I am driving all seven of us from Brick NJ to Niagara Falls NY on the USA side. Google Maps says 7 hours and 10 minutes. 444 miles. Leaving hopefully by 9:30AM tomorrow morning.
Everyone's counting on me to be rested , organized, and a safe driver.
So "What is the deal?" with certain people on here that think I live my life only to answer their questions? LOL... I'm not allowed to be with my family or go to church?
Now I'm gonna sit down with me wife and our relatives and eat Salmon and Rice for dinner.
IF....that's ok with you @brandon?

Today we had a great time in Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist Boat Ride. I am in the hotel posting this. Not gonna engage in political conversation though.

 

[LA - L.A.]

I thought the same thing for the 2016 election, got a dose of reality that not everyone is paying that much attention to what is at stake. Then the second election came around, and I thought "this time the people learned their lesson - they've had 4 years of his garbage'... only for millions more to vote for him. Now I think between Israel and this debate, it will be too much to overcome

I think the only chance of Biden losing is if too many voters don't vote, because they don't think he can win.

Voting in this election is more important than in 2020 and 2016. Vote to use the power that we have, while we still have it, regardless of how we think the election will go. We will never actually know how the election is going to turnout until after it's over and we shouldn't not vote because of how we feel or think the election might go. We should vote how we want to the election to turnout, so that we have done what we could to get what we want from the election.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Kamala is probably the most likely, but I think very well known candidates like Newsome or Whitmore won't need as much money,

Why do you think that's the case? The one poll on head to head voting that I've seen shows that Newsom or Whitmore would be in the same boat head to head with Trump as Biden and Harris.

There's no actual data that supports the idea that Newsom or Whitmore would do any better than Biden or Harris.

...plus I think the DNC will make sure they are funded,...

The DNC could only do that by raising new funds specifically for the replacement candidate, which means they would be starting from scratch with just four months to the election. That would give Trump over a 100 million dollar advantage instantly. The DNC doesn't have any other funds they can legally or affordably give to a replacement who is not Harris.

That's just a fact and it's a fact that know amount of hoping or wishing for is going to change.

...and they may already have campaign money from their last run.

Who may already have money left over from a previous campaign? If you mean Newsom and Whitmore, campaign finance laws keep them from being able to use any money left over from previous campaigns in a different campaign. Any left over money belongs to the specific campaign, it does not belong to the candidates to use how they want. Campaign funds are essentially in a public trust that can only be spent for the campaign they were received for.

Newsome could have a gazillion dollars left over from his CA Governor's campaign and he still wouldn't be able to use one penny of it to campaign for president. That's the law and it's not changing before November.

 

[J-DONK]

Nate Silver's model shows a dip for Biden after the debate.

 

[LA - L.A.]

for what it's worth

Chat GPT doesn't fact check. I have no doubt that if Cuban gave it another transcript with fact check corrections for both Biden and Trump, ChatGPT would pick Biden hands down. Honesty and integrity were not in ChatGPT's criteria, because ChatGPT at this time is not capable of fact checking, that's why it sometimes spits out false information that it has learned.

Someone on twitter can ask Cuban to do the same thing again with a fact checked transcript and asking ChatGPT to include honesty/trustworthiness as criteria. Cuban would probably get his same assistant to do it again. I'd ask him, but I don't have an account and I'm not getting one just for that.

 

[MT15]

Consider the source, though.

 

[LA - L.A.]

And running a large business isn't? Fwiw, at least with Cuban, he's at least supporting Biden. He's a pretty reasonable person and I think would bring a lot to the table.

There are so overlapping learned skills between running a business and being a president, but being a successful CEO and a successful president requires very different abilities and experience.

Even the nature of business negotiations and diplomatic negotiations are very different and require different negotiation abilities and experience.

Running a non-profit has a lot more overlap with being president than does running a for profit business. Give me the Chef José Andrés, the person who founded and runs World Central Kitchen any day and every day over Cuban or any other CEO billionaire to be the president. Not only would his skill-sets and experience fit better, but I'd trust him and the people he would surround himself with to look out for the interest of the general public than I would Cuban or any other CEO billionaire.

 

[LA - L.A.]

The debate was an abject disaster for Joe Biden. While I understand it was one 90 minute debate, I think it sealed Biden's fate.

According to the poll posted by Heathen, the debate did not really change how people are likely to vote. It changed perceptions, opinions and concerns about Biden, but it did not change how they would vote. They show the same basic head to head as previous polls which is Trump 48% and Biden 45%. That is a statistical tie.

According to that poll, Biden's fate was not sealed by the debate. Only people's misperception that Biden's fate has been sealed was changed for some by the debate.

There's no coming back from that.

According to that poll, there is nothing for Biden to come back from in regards to how people plan on voting.

I want Trump sent to Siberia more than anyone in the country, but if it's Trump vs. Biden in November, Trump will win.

According to all polls before and that one poll since the debate, Biden and Trump have been and still are in a dead heat. So far, no polls I know of have shown that Biden lost any actual voters' votes since the debate.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Today we had a great time in Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist Boat Ride. I am in the hotel posting this. Not gonna engage in political conversation though.

Um, sir, this is not a Facebook or Instagram. This is a political discussion board. Those other places are across the web. Just follow the other trolls to get there.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Nate Silver's model shows a dip for Biden after the debate.

Nate Silver has been historically inaccurate for quite a while now. He doesn't have the polling success he once had.

Based on recent trends, his predictions are at least just as likely to be wrong as they are to be right.

 

[zztop]

I think the only chance of Biden losing is if too many voters don't vote, because they don't think he can win.

Voting in this election is more important than in 2020 and 2016. Vote to use the power that we have, while we still have it, regardless of how we think the election will go. We will never actually know how the election is going to turnout until after it's over and we shouldn't not vote because of how we feel or think the election might go. We should vote how we want to the election to turnout, so that we have done what we could to get what we want from the election.

The people who are voting for him already know this. However:

- there are some that do not follow politics all that close, and for some maybe that debate was the first time they took notice. He made a poor impression to say the least.

- Some who were previously leaning towards voting for Biden might have been turned off by his poor performance.

What % of the population this group makes up, who knows. I think if he were to 'win' their vote he would have to be energetic and charismatic. I don't think campaigning on his merits or record will be enough to convince those types on the fence. He'll need a different way to speak/connect with them.

 

[J-DONK]

Good article by the NYT on how the DNP ended up putting a 81 year old man on a debate stage. A man that was staring off into space, mouth agape at times.

The Road to a Crisis: How Democrats Let Biden Glide to Renomination

An 81-year-old candidate and no Plan B. “How did we get here?” one leading Democrat asks. The answer is complicated.

www.nytimes.com

 

[J-DONK]

I feel like some people on this board need to wake up. Here is another article.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/01/biden-debate-hill-democrats-firewall-00166003

“The leadership of the party should be going to the White House and knocking down the doors and saying, ‘Time’s up,’” an adviser to top Democratic donors said. “Anybody trying to prolong the inevitable here is just basically putting us on a giant f***** death march towards the end.”

That sense of anger is palpable among rank-and-file congressional Democrats, many of whom blame Biden and his family for hiding the reality of his condition. The House Democrat lamented defending the president on the campaign trail despite getting political advice to run away from him, only to find out how bad things were on Thursday.

“It’s just his egotism and his family’s enabling,” the person said. “Jill [Biden] of all people — she sees him every single day. She’s the one person who could end this train wreck. … This should have been a one-term president.”

Many senior Democrats haven’t given up hope that Biden will change his mind should new polling reveal mass internal bleeding. They are prepared to argue that rather than disgracing his legacy, a graceful exit would be among his greatest, most selfless acts to save democracy.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Good article by the NYT on how the DNP ended up putting a 81 year old man on a debate stage. A man that was staring off into space, mouth agape at times.

I feel like some people on this board need to wake up.

And I think you need to calm the eff down and pull your shirt together. Put both of our opinions together on that and it won't buy jack shirt.

Like it or not, accept it or not, Biden is going to be the candidate barring something other than him stepping down or the Democratic party replacing him.

If you want to increase the odds that Trump wins, then by all means keep harping mostly on Biden's debate performance and age.

If you want to increase the odds that Trump loses, then start harping mostly on how terrible and how much worse of president Trump would be than Biden.

The choice is yours to make. I hope you choose wisely and rationally.

 

[Dragon]

Spot on, well said and good on her for saying it. I'm sure she's going to be targeted with a lot of hate for saying it.

I'd obviously be one of those white males who tend to publicly freak out when things don't go just so, if it weren't for the fact that I'm huffing so much "copium."

She is always spot on and she has lots of people supporting her. The MAGA haters don't have a chance if they try

 

[Optimus Prime]

For what it’s worth



Full Text:

I no longer blame @POTUS Biden for not stepping aside. He no longer has the mental acuity to make important judgments about himself. It is becoming increasingly clear however that the fault lies with
@FLOTUS Jill Biden.

FL Jill Biden becomes irrelevant the moment her husband is no longer president. No more Air Force One. No more glamorous life. No more White House dinners for dignitaries. No more being treated like a queen when traveling the world.

I am sorry to be harsh, but what has become entirely clear is that the First Lady values what is best for herself over her husband’s health and the safety and security of the country at large. Stress is a contributor to neurological deterioration and the doctors must have told her so.

Think about how much stress she is putting Biden under by making him continue. Now in public appearances she treats him like an infant (‘You answered every question!’) or an old man as she walks him off the stage. And she gets the crowd wound up and cheering at events. Perhaps she thinks the crowd is cheering for her.

Her power has clearly grown as he gets weaker. And she likes the feeling of power. She speaks for the president when he can’t or when he is napping. She tells his team and staff when he is available, and when he is not.

She likes being in control. We all do. Which begs the question, how many decisions of the president are actually made by the FL?

Her ‘friends’ likely don’t tell her the truth as they want to continue to be invited to the White House and to be able to say that they are friends with the FL and the president. Jill Biden is destroying her own legacy along with the president’s. The

whole thing would just be a tragedy for the Biden family if it didn’t put the country at greater risk in a world in turmoil. Perhaps she didn’t understand what ‘in sickness and in health’ meant.

 

[Incumbent]

Strongly agree with this.

 

[MT15]

staring off into space, mouth agape at times.

You ever had a cold that made it impossible to breathe through your nose? Yes, he was ill-prepared, and he wasn’t quick with comebacks. But let’s just quit catastrophizing him into some sort of dementia patient. There’s no real evidence for that.

I think there’s some merit to the wrong type of preparation theory. He tried to be a policy wonk, which he decidedly is not, rather than the Joe Biden that he really is. I also believe he needs to quit setting the blistering pace he was trying to set. He’d been around the world several times, then intense debate prep, then the debate with a cold.

I’m fine with him being slow to speak, slow to walk, and also drawing on his decades of experience to get things done, even if in a slow methodical way.