Trump, on the other hand, was seen as a divider because of his comments and tweets. I didn’t think so. He was entertaining. He reminded me of those old Westerns where one gunslinger says to another, “Say that with a smile.” I got the feeling that Trump didn’t hate the New York Times or CNN. He certainly didn’t want to suppress them. He enjoyed engaging with them. Trump didn’t understand the political world enough to go to war against his opponents, or he just didn’t want to. But if you are the one being made fun of, you view things differently, and the media and half the country did think of Trump as a divider. Biden had a lot in common with Trump, boastfulness for one thing, but he was made out to be the anti-Trump and assigned the role of unifier and healer. He ran on being the Trumpslayer who would return things to “normal,” and that was all that mattered to many of his voters.

Politicians are creatures of circumstance, and adapt to what’s possible. The people around Biden discovered that control of the Congress meant that Democrats could do everything they’d wanted to do for years. If Democrats weren’t running Congress, Biden might be saying the same things as he is now, but he wouldn’t be able to put his team’s plans into effect and wouldn’t be as harmful to the country. If Team Biden didn’t get its own way on things, Joe might be more capable of posing as a unifier, but it’s hard for him to do so now, since he is saddled with the responsibility for the results of his government’s actions, and can’t simply play the Trumpslayer.

Non-Trump fan but quite conservative Ben Shapiro claims the anti-Dem sentiment has already peaked, and as they push Trump, whom independents don’t like, it reduces support for Trump. Might be somewhat true – I do think more Reps talking about how bad it is now under Biden and Dems, as compared to Trump’s time, is better than talking about new evidence the election was stolen and that Trump should be installed.

The USA really doesn’t have laws to handle what to do about an election which was stolen … other than do it again, sort of.

https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Doc_0

John Fetterman, the Democrat running for Senate in Pennsylvania, is not well. That much has been made clear by his recent public appearances. His speaking has been concerning, to say the least, and the lingering effects of his massive stroke, brought on by ignoring his doctor for half a decade, have shown him to be completely unfit to run for the office he’s seeking.

More recently, Mehmet Oz, the Republican in the race, has made Fettermans’ health an issue, specifically regarding the coming non-partisan debate scheduled in Pittsburgh. Would the Democrat, who can’t currently form coherent sentences and has been running a meme campaign, show up?

We have an answer: Fetterman has officially chickened out.
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Laughably, Fetterman’s excuse for not showing up is that Oz made fun of him. No, I’m not kidding. The clown who has spent his entire campaign making New Jersey jokes is now really upset that his opponent finally hit back. It’s pathetic.
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Apparently, Fetterman can dish it out but he can’t take it, which is predictable. He wants to be able to hit Oz with a variety of unfair attacks, but he doesn’t want anyone to question his health, which is actually a legitimate issue. Someone who is so sick that they can’t debate should not be running for the US Senate, and it is very much an open question whether Fetterman will ever even fully recover. Certainly, his long-term prognosis is cloudy at best given how bad his stroke was.

What this comes down to is that Fetterman is stalling. He and his handlers know he’s incapable of standing on a stage for two hours and debating the issues.
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He may feel that he’s got nothing to lose by using the basement strategy all the way until November. I think that’s a miscalculation, though. Oz has been making headway in the polls and with over two months left until election day, there’s a lot of time for Fetterman to be further exposed. As it becomes clearer that he is ducking the debates because he can’t physically do them, that will resonate with some segment of voters.

In this case, it seems like Oz is NOT the man hiding behind a curtain!

However, the basement strategy worked for Joe Biden, so maybe Fetterman is counting on some of the Democrats’ elixir of election fortification to aid him as well.

Skipping debates seems to be the new Democrat Party line.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/08/20/kari-lake-slams-her-democrat-opponent-for-cowardly-debate-move-n615140

Kari Lake is facing off against the mother of all Karens in Democrat Katie Hobbs in Arizona. The two gubernatorial opponents have been going at each other, with Hobbs trotting out the typical charge that Lake is too radical. That’s how you know a Democrat has nothing to actually run on, and Hobbs really has nothing to run on.

Perhaps that’s why Hobbs is trying to duck out on having to debate? According to Arizona’s Family, which represents two local news stations, the Democrat thinks she can avoid having to defend her positions by claiming that Lake will cause a “circus.”
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It is not Hobbs’ job to decide what is a “circus” or not regarding any debate between her and Lake. Rather, it is up to the voters to decide what is acceptable based on having that open debate. I told you that she was the ultimate Karen, and here, she’s offering the ultimate Karen excuse, refusing to show up for a debate unless she can speak to the manager.
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Lake wins either way at this point. If Hobbs belatedly decides to debate, she will likely get eviscerated on stage. If she doesn’t, then she looks like a pathetic candidate who can’t defend her own policies in front of the voters, which happens to be the reality of the situation.