1st Presidential Debate Megathread

[Bootes Void]

you guys nervous or confident for this debate?

[Buzz]

Tonights drinking game courtesy of the Washingtonian

Take a sip when Trump:
Says “yuge”
Says “Jina” (China)
Talks about his admiration for any totalitarian world leader
Makes any false claims related to coronavirus and our pandemic response
Complains about mysterious voter fraud
Accuses Biden of wanting to defund the police


Take a sip when Biden:
Uses a malapropism
Says “folks”
References the middle class
Starts a sentence with “look”
Tells a story about some “average Joe” worker he met on the campaign trail that could easily be fabricated
Claims he’s going to end systemic racism and fails to explain how


Chug when:
Biden uses Obama’s record as evidence of his own capabilities as a leader.
You can no longer follow what Trump is arguing.

[Inmate Trump]

I've got salmon and red beans, you plebs. Debates are a high-class experience.

There is nothing high class about red beans, lol

Me and the boyfriend are starting out with a negroni each; then balsamic blueberry and brie burgers with roasted Brussel sprouts and an oaked chardonnay.

Will probably drink Miller Lite after the bottle is gone though

I'm just glad Trump's incompetence hasn't made me eat a ventilator yet.

[solidcoalition]

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1310962406689050624?s=21

So 2 commercial breaks for a 90 minute event? Ok? How is this bad for Biden lmao

All the debates going back to 1960 never had breaks. It feeds into the “Biden needs a diaper change” argument.

[TwinFallsDemocrat]

All the debates going back to 1960 never had breaks. It feeds into the “Biden needs a diaper change” argument.

The only people who believe that crap are the gullible hardcore Republican fools that never would have voted for Biden to begin with. A lot of the bunch that push it don't believe it themselves but hope to God people don't actually check if they're accurate.

[President Johnson]

I've ordered pizza for tonight.

I would have, too, but I can't watch it live here. I'll watch the debate tomorrow in the morning, before working from home (which I do anyway). I won't check the news or forum before watching, so that I can evaluate the debate without being influenced by other takes. Can't wait for Uncle Joe to destroy Trump on stage.

[It’s so Joever]

I may log out of my class early so I can see the first few moments. I’m very excited to watch the spectacle despite the fact this event probably will be insignificant in the long run.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

lol why does it say EST? daylight savings doesn't end until november

[Former Crackhead Mike Lindell]

lol why does it say EST? daylight savings doesn't end until november

Eastern Savings Time

[GeneralMacArthur]

Many people are saying that President Donald J. Trump will be wearing a diaper at tonight's debate.

I'm not the one saying that, I'm hearing it, all over cable news, all the people, talking, all the people saying it.

That's probably why, now I don't know why, but that's probably why his team didn't want to have any breaks in the debate.  Maybe they know that, since he's wearing a diaper, he won't need to go to the bathroom.  Maybe they know that and so they don't want to have any breaks to let Joe use the bathroom.  Maybe not.  But who knows?  Maybe.

And if you don't believe me, there's an easy way to prove it, Trump should agree to a diaper check before the debate.  Both candidates take off their pants and prove that they are not wearing diapers.  But he won't agree to that.  I'll let you guys decide why but I think I know why.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump apparently doing last minute prep on plane.

https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1311027030104985602

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

I don't really understand why the Trump team lowered the expectations for Biden so much especially after that backfired on Sanders on 3/15. Low expectations also won Bush the 2000 debates.

[Illini Moderate]

I may log out of my class early so I can see the first few moments. I’m very excited to watch the spectacle despite the fact this event probably will be insignificant in the long run.

I'm leaving my class 30 minutes early to do exactly that! Lol

[Roblox]

Ok,  now’s the time: joe Biden must go full corn pop mode.

[xavier110]

No one has ever really called out Trump successfully and forcefully. I know Clinton semi-did during the debates but even she admits she was afraid to do so due to misogyny and the perceptions of a woman shouting down a man.

Meanwhile the GOP candidates in 16 all floundered and never could lay a finger on him.

Will Biden finally be the one who puts this bully, fraud and all around dumb man FINALLY in his place? I don’t even think it’s that hard to do!

[Non Swing Voter]

does anyone else think Trump is going to have a mini nervous breakdown tonight?  between his sagging poll numbers, the tax release, and looming jail time if he loses the election, I think he will...

[Del Tachi]

lol why does it say EST? daylight savings doesn't end until november

Eastern Savings Time

No, it's Eastern Standard Time (EST) vs Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

[xavier110]

does anyone else think Trump is going to have a mini nervous breakdown tonight?  between his sagging poll numbers, the tax release, and looming jail time if he loses the election, I think he will...

He’s going to sound unhinged. He’s going to be lashing out at everyone and everything.

[Splash]

does anyone else think Trump is going to have a mini nervous breakdown tonight?  between his sagging poll numbers, the tax release, and looming jail time if he loses the election, I think he will...

He’s going to sound unhinged. He’s going to be lashing out at everyone and everything.

So...standard Trump then, I guess?

[GeneralMacArthur]

does anyone else think Trump is going to have a mini nervous breakdown tonight?  between his sagging poll numbers, the tax release, and looming jail time if he loses the election, I think he will...

He’s going to sound unhinged. He’s going to be lashing out at everyone and everything.

You guys really need to go back and watch some of Trump's debates with Clinton.

He is not unhinged.  He's not lashing out.  There are a few things that really stick out:

1) Trump relentlessly, relentlessly, harps on his talking points.  He only really has two or three things he can say about each particular issue, but he says them in 5 or 6 different ways and often has an illustrative story or two.

2) Trump has prepared talking points to undermine Clinton on every single issue, and he's pretty good at directing the dialogue to a point where he can smack her with them.  A lot of the time they are lies.  But Clinton failed here because she kept saying things like "I hope the fact checkers are covering this" or "people, go to my website, get the facts."

3) Trump would also frequently use the gish gallop technique.  He'd rattle off ten lies in a row, and Clinton could only respond to 1 or 2 of them at most, so the other 8-9 would stand.

4) Trump would frequently interrupt Clinton when she was responding to him, particularly when she was trying to refute his lies.  He would either interrupt her with the well-known "WRONG" or some sort of digression, or he would interrupt her to harp on some minor point and try to redirect the whole conversation to that minor point, as though if he got that one win he would win the entire argument.  And to a lot of the audience, that's what it probably looked like.

5) Trump completely abused the debate moderator in all three debates.  He would constantly talk over his time.  He would interrupt the moderators and yell over them.  If they tried to fact check them, he would yell into his microphone and interrupt their fact-checks, either to belabor some minor point where he was right, or just flat out tell them their facts were wrong.  He would interrupt Clinton non-stop in much the same fashion.

While he's undoubtedly rude and boorish, he never comes off as unhinged or desperate or manic.  On the contrary, he's very in control the entire debate.  Clinton never succeeded in knocking him off his game because he would just ignore everything she said that he couldn't respond to, and shift the conversation to either some minor point where he could fight to a draw or some attack he had on her as a whataboutism.

Republicans here on Atlas follow much the same pattern.  They learn from their king.  Just ignore 99% of the devastating post you're replying to and focus in on some minor point where you think you can stand your ground, or shift the topic to some other attack line and pretend like you didn't just get owned.

[cg41386]

It’s pretty much a guarantee that the post debate performance polls will say Biden won.  We see how well that worked for Hillary. 

It actually worked out pretty well for Hillary up until the Comey letter that were released days before the election. Her lead over trump got bigger after she kicking his butt in the first debate lol

The only reason she started declining again in the polls is because of FBI announced that they were once again investigating Her and by time her poll numbers started to recover it was too little too late

IIRC, her numbers were already declining a little beforehand, and they even recovered a little right before the election.

[Splash]

https://twitter.com/CBSNewsPoll/status/1311061358989934593

[GeneralMacArthur]

I honestly think Biden's best strategy would just be to dismiss Trump's responses as "all lies, as expected" or something similar.  Don't engage at all.  If Trump responds, say something like "folks, who are you gonna believe, me or him?  This guy has lied over 20,000 times in his presidency.  He lied about X, he lied about Y, he lied about Z.  If you still trust him after all the lies he's told, God help ya."

Another tactic could be to give his standard answer, then say "now Trump says X.  It's a complete lie.  A complete lie!  And don't just take it from me, go look it up yourself!  My god, the lies this man tells, I don't know how he can keep a straight face."

[CellarDoor]

https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1311068232976080896

[Dr. Arch]

https://twitter.com/CBSNewsPoll/status/1311061358989934593

Only 6% of viewers are undecided?? Yeah, this won't be moving the needle much at all.