Who's going to qualify for the Democratic debates?

[GeneralMacArthur]

The pathetic dying gasps of a campaign that never had integrity in the first place.  True bottom of the barrel stuff.

The pathetic dying gasps of a campaign that never had integrity in the first place.  True bottom of the barrel stuff.

The post so nice it was posted twice.

Also, what the heck is so wrong with that quote from the Sanders campaign?

Oops, this site is buggy sometimes.

The problem is that a lot of really terrible Rose Twitter people, along with Trump team, have been working together on Twitter to push this idea that Biden is dying or sundowning.  This is exactly the kind of thing that Bernie and his campaign have been pretending to disown.  Oh, the horror!  We've never seen any of this behavior, bit if it does exist, I condemn it!

Except then they turn around and pull something like this, implying with zero subtlety that Biden's so sick that he can't even stand for the debate.

It's obvious that they're playing along with the smear campaign.  A campaign being run by the very people they're pretending to distance themselves from, and the F***ING TRUMP CAMPAIGN.

This is EXACTLY the kind of dog-whistling crap he pulled last time.  And it is disgusting.

Oh knock it off MacArthur. Nothing in that quote implied that Biden was losing his mind. You are reading into it what you want to see.

No.  Not OK.  The entire point of the attack is to imply that Biden isn't physically capable of standing.  It doesn't make any sense to attack him for standing instead of sitting otherwise.

It's dovetailing right into the narrative being pushed by the Trump campaign that Biden is physically weak and decaying.  Which is the same narrative they pushed about Clinton in 2016, courtesy of Russia.  And the same narrative that Russia has pushed about other enemy politicians in other countries.

If it were less obvious, I might be inclined to call it a coincidence, but no.  Because we've seen this again and again and again and again from the Sanders campaign.  These dogwhistles to narratives and conspiracy theories being pushed by Trump or Rose Twitter or Russia about his opponents and the Democratic Party.  But you don't even have to agree with me on that to see what's going on here because it's just glaringly, stupidly obvious.

What is the alternative explanation?.  Is the attack supposed to be about something other than Biden's physical health?  Did the Sanders campaign just so happen to start caring about Biden's physical health at the same time that his supporters (whom the campaign totally condemns!) started coordinating with the Trump campaign to push that narrative?

Say 'sike' right now or I'm actually going to start thinking you've lost your mind.

What's your alternative explanation?  That is the Sanders campaign's motivation for launching this attack?

[John Dule]

What's your alternative explanation?  That is the Sanders campaign's motivation for launching this attack?

You cannot possibly expect me to believe that that completely innocuous quote was somehow an attack on Biden's mental health. They were asking why Biden didn't want to attend; the quote goes on to imply that Biden does not want to have to defend his record against Sanders'. That is all that was being implied, and you'd have to have rabbit ears to read it any other way.

[GeneralMacArthur]

What's your alternative explanation?  That is the Sanders campaign's motivation for launching this attack?

You cannot possibly expect me to believe that that completely innocuous quote was somehow an attack on Biden's mental health. They were asking why Biden didn't want to attend; the quote goes on to imply that Biden does not want to have to defend his record against Sanders'. That is all that was being implied, and you'd have to have rabbit ears to read it any other way.

I suggest you seek help. Professional help.

No, they weren't talking about Biden not wanting to attend.  Nobody is suggesting that Biden won't attend.  They are attacking Biden for, allegedly, wanting to sit at a table instead of stand at a podium (the Biden campaign response was "wtf? we don't care").

Also I didn't say that this was about mental health.  I said it was about physical health.  But you can read so you knew that.

[John Dule]

What's your alternative explanation?  That is the Sanders campaign's motivation for launching this attack?

You cannot possibly expect me to believe that that completely innocuous quote was somehow an attack on Biden's mental health. They were asking why Biden didn't want to attend; the quote goes on to imply that Biden does not want to have to defend his record against Sanders'. That is all that was being implied, and you'd have to have rabbit ears to read it any other way.

I suggest you seek help. Professional help.

No, they weren't talking about Biden not wanting to attend.  Nobody is suggesting that Biden won't attend.  They are attacking Biden for, allegedly, wanting to sit at a table instead of stand at a podium (the Biden campaign response was "wtf? we don't care").

Also I didn't say that this was about mental health.  I said it was about physical health.  But you can read so you knew that.

Woah. All I saw was the Averroes quote. My apologies. I went back to the last page and saw the original Politico article.

This is pretty below-the-belt.

[GeneralMacArthur]

What's your alternative explanation?  That is the Sanders campaign's motivation for launching this attack?

You cannot possibly expect me to believe that that completely innocuous quote was somehow an attack on Biden's mental health. They were asking why Biden didn't want to attend; the quote goes on to imply that Biden does not want to have to defend his record against Sanders'. That is all that was being implied, and you'd have to have rabbit ears to read it any other way.

I suggest you seek help. Professional help.

No, they weren't talking about Biden not wanting to attend.  Nobody is suggesting that Biden won't attend.  They are attacking Biden for, allegedly, wanting to sit at a table instead of stand at a podium (the Biden campaign response was "wtf? we don't care").

Also I didn't say that this was about mental health.  I said it was about physical health.  But you can read so you knew that.

Woah. All I saw was the Averroes quote. My apologies. I went back to the last page and saw the original Politico article.

This is pretty below-the-belt.

All good

[Arizona Iced Tea]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/07/bernie-sanders-joe-biden-arizona-debate-123467
POLITICO ARTICLE LINK

Bernie Sanders wants to stand up at the next debate — and his campaign is accusing Joe Biden of wanting to sit down.

The format for the next debate in Arizona — their first since Biden’s blowout Super Tuesday victories — would have the candidates seated for the first time this election cycle and take multiple questions from the audience. In the prior 10 debates, the candidates stood at lecterns and nearly all questions were asked by the professional moderators.

Biden’s campaign and the DNC said the format for the debate was decided by the party and CNN. The news network declined to comment and referred questions to the DNC.

[Tender Branson]

I agree with Biden here.

Why not have a seated debate for a change, after having numerous standing debates ?

Seated debates are very common in Austria btw.

[KaiserDave]

Cmon Bernie

Issues, man, focus on the issues.


This is not an issue.

[Dr. Arch]

Cmon Bernie

Issues, man, focus on the issues.


This is not an issue.

We're already in sunset Bernie territory again. I think I'm ready to jump ship. This is not what I signed up for.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

Why doesn't Sanders just stand up for the whole debate if he cares that much about it?

[Mr. Morden]

I'm guessing that Sunday's debate will be the last of this primary.  Even though the DNC is supposed to schedule one more debate for April, I think there's a high probability that either Sanders will have dropped out by then or else Biden will simply skip it, since he'll likely be close enough to clinching a delegate majority, and see no point to doing more debates.

I guess if Biden really bombs in this one, yet feels confident that he can do better, then maybe he'll be willing to go for redemption in another debate.  But that probably won't happen.

[Oryxslayer]

https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1237517917593329664

CNN's upcoming debate is going to be a private affair because of Corona.

[Mr. Morden]

The debate will be held in DC rather than Arizona:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/politics/cnn-univision-debate-arizona-dc/index.html

"Out of an abundance of caution and in order to reduce cross-country travel, all parties have decided that the best path forward is to hold Sunday's debate at CNN's studio in Washington, D.C., with no live audience," DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.

Additionally, Univision's Jorge Ramos was possibly exposed to coronavirus. While he is not exhibiting any symptoms, he has has stepped down from his role as one of the moderators for the debate, the DNC said. The network's Ilia Calderón will take his place, alongside CNN's Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. The debate is still set to take place 8 to 10 p.m. ET Sunday.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

It looks like that was the last debate.

[jake_arlington]

It looks like that was the last debate.

Eh and why's that?