Thoughts on the Worst Debate Ever
Trailing badly in polls and facing defeat, President Donald Trump declared the coming election fraudulent and told white supremacists to “stand by.” - Author Ron Fournier
The real winner was anyone who decided to watch something else. — Karen Tumulty
I turned off the TV 45 minutes into the worst televised presidential debate in US history. A televised version of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques would have been easier to watch.
https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1311133549693526016?s=20
I could no longer take the abuse, the, lies, the bullying. The President of the United States fought like the cornered rat that he is. As always, the point was to distract the audience from anything but his Yuge ego.
https://twitter.com/SDuncovered/status/1311140087577546753?s=20
The president’s defenders spent the day prior to the debate repeating a conspiracy theorist’s assertion that Biden would be wearing an earpiece and that the Democrats had a leaked version of the questions Chris Wallace was planning on asking. ...Like that would have done any good against the toddler trash dispensed on the stage in Cleveland.
https://twitter.com/mviser/status/1311148259407278081?s=20
If there are to be further debates, I suggest the Democrats re-incarnate Robin Williams, the only person I can think of whose rapid fire schtick could match Trump’s vitriol.
I won’t even bother with a blow-by-blow of Debate #1. Trump needed to land a knockout punch and failed. Biden needed to look Presidential and not lose his temper. He succeeded for the most part.
Two points worth mentioning here:
Hillary Clinton “won” all her debates with Trump.
There is little to no evidence that debates change voters' minds.
However, the way a debate is described in the press does seem to have a small effect.
... a “hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.” ---CNN’s Jake Tapper
Cry, the beloved country. Donald Trump ensured Tuesday’s first US presidential debate was the worst in American history, a national humiliation. ---Guardian's David Smith
…”a shitshow” --CNN’s Dana Bash
It was some of the worst TV that the country should ever have to see; years from now, I expect to see it ranked alongside terrorist attacks, space shuttle explosions and erroneous Oscar announcements. --Washington Post's Hank Stuever
The corrupt national media are not demanding the two remaining presidential debates be canceled because this one made children — LOL — cry. No, the corrupt national media want the two remaining presidential debates canceled because they know Trump won and Biden lost --Breitbart's John Nolte
A new poll by Data for Progress provided exclusively to Vox shows that viewers thought Democratic nominee Joe Biden decisively won Tuesday’s first presidential debate against President Donald Trump, by a 52-39 margin.
The poll surveyed debate watchers but then weighted the demographics of the survey group to the population of likely voters in November. Most pollsters don’t do this, which ends up skewing their results toward Democrats because left-leaning college graduates are disproportionately likely to watch debates.
For those of you concerned about the impact of the debate, it’s worth noting that researchers found a personal conversation with another person, even a short conversation with a person who knocks on doors seeking supporters, can make a big difference.
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Stay tuned: My Short and Sassy Progressive Voter Guide will be published tomorrow.
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