1st Presidential Debate Megathread

[It’s so Joever]

Hot take: This debate will be very uneventful in the grand scheme of things and will not change the election.

[It’s so Joever]

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

Found the Louisianan.

[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.

[It’s so Joever]

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.

Absolutely.
Watching the 2016 debates after knowing everything is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

Imho, Biden’s best strategy is to be really careful to avoid these traps and to stay on message.
If Trump needs to go off on a tangent, let him, and just ignore his ramblings. Don’t get bogged down in the little details, just focus on the actual topic.

Biden should always be emphasizing the question (but not directly asking it) Are you/is this better off than it was four years ago?

It’s easier said than done, but I hope Biden has prepared for this rhetorical style.
While debates are overrated, it’s never good to lose one.

[It’s so Joever]

Biden confirms reports from earlier today.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1311084592338735104

At least Biden has a better sense of humor than Hillary did when it came to these things.

[It’s so Joever]

Tuning in from a plane right now. First time I've ever blown $20 on inflight WiFi. This better be worth it!

Stay safe, and hopefully the WiFi works!

[It’s so Joever]

[It’s so Joever]

Yes!! Biden looks old! People are watching.

They both look like rotting vegetables. Probably because they both are.

[It’s so Joever]

So far Biden is losing.

[It’s so Joever]

Uh oh, looks like Trump compared water to insulin. That’s not very good.

[It’s so Joever]

Biden has lost. No question about it.

[It’s so Joever]

I'm glad i don't have to vote. Biden is unworthy of my vote. A bland, boring choice who offers nothing to America and change nothing, except for undo everything Trump did, which is arguably a net win compared to "four more years of Trump who hasn't grown into office". This debate showed that Democrats have learned nothing in the last four years. (Neither did Trump F.Y.I.) Either way, regardless of who wins, America has still a long road ahead of them before being a great country back again. Biden would've lost every election except for this one, where most people just want Trump to get out, instead of Uncle Joe getting elected. It's time to build a leftist opposition against president Biden after the election is over. That's what America needs, a huge leftist opposition movement, incl. Sanders, AOC, Yang, Warren, The Squad and more).

Imagine being on Atlas for the entire last year and still thinking that Biden is offering nothing for America.

This tired leftie talking point is just so damn ignorant.  Biden discussed, or at least tried to discuss, plenty of different policy proposals last night, and if you go to his website there's dozens more.  If you watch any of his speeches or town halls he has plenty that he is offering the country.

To still be sitting here on September 30, 2020 and believing (assuming you're not just trolling) that "Biden offers nothing to America" is just so astonishingly ignorant.  How can you comment on an election every day without having made even the slightest effort to pay attention to what Joe Biden says or stands for?

And this is why Trump benefits from these debates. Low information/idiotic soft-Biden supporters will now abstain because “both sides bad”.

[It’s so Joever]

I sincerely hope Team Trump tries to portray Biden as dumb.
That would be hilarious and probably the dumbest move on their part. Americans love dumb people. Especially swing voters.

[It’s so Joever]

Fist debate is now irrelevant. Out of the news cycle forever. Ridiculous year.

On the contrary.  The main thing everyone will remember from it now is Trump mocking Biden for wearing a mask.  That one's going to last.

Team Biden should play that clip repeatedly in the swing states.