Presidential debate megathread (debate 1: June 27, 9pm EDT, CNN)

[PeteB]

So far (on a scale of 1-10):

Trump - 5
Biden - 3

As one of my foreign friends told me - in all of the US, you couldn't find better candidates than those two?

[Freshly-touched grass]

https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1806505436457189594
This sounds very plausible.

[OSR stands with Israel]

LMAO Trump said "he ended Catch and Release"

[AncestralDemocrat.]

DrScholl accusing Alben of all people to be MAGA.

That's when you know it's bad.

I've been saying that about Alben a long time. After Clinton lost he wanted Dems to throw people of color under the bus and go into resentment politics to copy Trump.

Alben is a distinctly anti Trump individual.  

He's been rather emotional about it in the past.

[Alben Barkley]

Is Trump confusing Biden and Hillary with the "superpredators" thing?

Yupp. First real slip up from Trump.

He’ll say he and Hillary were on the same page with supporting the 1994 Crime Bill or something. Non-issue, nobody will notice.

Overall Trump is the most normal and presidential-seeming I’ve ever seen him, even as he of course lies and exaggerates everything. Biden seems like he just rolled out of bed in a nursing home days before his death.

This is the worst case scenario.

You are nothing but a Trump supporter. The excuse for his slip up is pure MAGA bs.

Bro Biden said he “beat Medicare” and otherwise has been rambling and incoherent.

And I’m not saying Trump was right, I’m saying that would be what the spin would be, if anybody even cares which they won’t.

I understand thinking rationally and abstractly is hard for some people though.

[emailking]

well he's about to address his age...

[Eraserhead]

Biden is clearly doing considerably better now. Maybe whatever they gave him finally kicked in. We needed him like this in the first 45 minutes...

[soundchaser]

Biden just needs to say “why the hell aren’t you answering any of the questions?” It’s so obvious, but nobody’s able to see it beyond the optics. Come ON, man!!!!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Ah, the age question.

[Schiff for Senate]

Is Trump confusing Biden and Hillary with the "superpredators" thing?

Yupp. First real slip up from Trump.

He’ll say he and Hillary were on the same page with supporting the 1994 Crime Bill or something. Non-issue, nobody will notice.

Overall Trump is the most normal and presidential-seeming I’ve ever seen him, even as he of course lies and exaggerates everything. Biden seems like he just rolled out of bed in a nursing home days before his death.

This is the worst case scenario.

You are nothing but a Trump supporter. The excuse for his slip up is pure MAGA bs.

No?

Alben's just a realist. It's a fact that Trump is definitely doing better than Biden overall, that Biden is visibly lost at certain points, and that roles are almost reversed from 4 years ago (when Trump was the embattled incumbent getting absolutely mauled).

Then that says something about the anti-incumbency instinct and expectations of the audience more than Biden or Trump actual debate skills.

Agreed for sure - incumbency is a huge liability in presidential debates now (even Obama's first 2012 debate went terribly for him, btw).

That said Biden DEFINITELY sounds a lot worse than he did back in 2020. He's aged four years, and it shows very very clearly.

[Christian Man]

Biden sounding noticeably better now.

Where the hell was this energy an hour ago, when the narrative was being set?

My theory is that he got worn out and hoarse doing debate prep (you know, because he's an octogenarian), and things spiraled from there. That explains why he's worse than baseline anyway. He was pretty rough before.

At first I thought that he was sick, but your theory is more plausible.

[emailking]

Forum tip, if it's near the end of the page, you can get to the next page by making a post. Saves you having to wait for the reload to manually navigated to the next page when the forum is slow like this.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

OK I need a break. I'm going to tune back into the debate but for now I switched my YouTube to watch some Furnace Fest songs.

Seriously this guy should be the one running for President:

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I'm not sure Biden pointing out he was one of the youngest Senators ever helps him. In just a few hours, he'd beat Robert Byrd for the longest serving Senator ever were he still in the Senate.

[Reaganfan Democrat]

I missed the first hour of the debate, but it is interesting that Atlas thinks Biden is doing so bad but I was told in a group chat I am in that is like 50% MAGA that Biden was doing better than Trump.

[ultraviolet]

It's hard to lose a debate when you can make up lies to respond to every question and have no one bat an eye. The only silver lining, since Biden is sick, is that he can potentially do way better next time and show dramatic improvement.

[KYRockefeller]

Dems have an FDR in 1944 problem.  They need to pull a Truman-for-Wallace deal at the convention since Biden has his delegates locked up.  One could forgive Biden's failings if Kamala Harris, who is more unpopular, wasn't in the wings.

[PeteB]

Biden actually handled the age question reasonably well but his delivery really sucks.  If he has a cold, he should have said so clearly at the start.

[Schiff for Senate]

The body language at certain points, my god. Biden looking away, his head hung as if in shame, almost looking submissive as Trump hammers him, his mouth gaping open and his eyes practically put of socket.

My god, man! YOU’RE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

I’m honestly terrified now someone this out of it is president. I was also terrified when someone as deranged as Trump was. Good lord this is the worst election ever!

Tbh Biden's naturally more submissive than Trump is. Trump's a...personality, and it's difficult for most politicians, let alone Joe Biden, to assert dominance over him.

[emailking]

Trump lying about his cognitive tests again.

[Schiff for Senate]

Dems have an FDR in 1944 problem.  They need to pull a Truman-for-Wallace deal at the convention since Biden has his delegates locked up.  One could forgive Biden's failings if Kamala Harris, who is more unpopular, wasn't in the wings.

If only this situation was like 1944...

[Alben Barkley]

DrScholl accusing Alben of all people to be MAGA.

That's when you know it's bad.

I've been saying that about Alben a long time. After Clinton lost he wanted Dems to throw people of color under the bus and go into resentment politics to copy Trump.

That aside I can't see how anyone not supporting Trump wouldn't just admit he made a clear error.

Lolwat

First off I never even remotely came close to saying that. Huh? Just because I didn’t support “defund the police” or rioting or thought the DEI in San Francisco went too far sometimes or something? This suddenly makes me a racist I guess? Huh???

Maybe you can accuse me of “transphobia” (which I dispute, but whatever) but you can’t accuse me of racism. I have a strongly progressive track record on that.

Second of all, again I was simply saying what the excuse for a relatively minor error would be, not claiming it was not an error.

[Obama24]

what do microchips have to do with age

[emailking]

Biden bragging he's a better golfer than Trump lol.

[Buzz]

Golf hahahahahahahahahha