Dueling Town Halls
Here’s a thread to discuss this evening’s Town Halls.
The odd thing – at least, one of the odd things – is that it’s Trump who’s not infectious right now, even though his illness is the supposed reason the original debate was cancelled. Meanwhile, it’s Biden who apparently has had some possible exposure.
neo: it’s Trump who’s not infectious right now, even though his illness is the supposed reason the original debate was cancelled. Meanwhile, it’s Biden who apparently has had some possible exposure.
me: There IS a God! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
People this last week or so were quite worried about polls and stuff. Quite a few “online friends” at various blogs are seeing and posting upbeat news. Are we fooling ourselves? Sure, could be. But the gloom has lifted in what feels like a legitimate and healthy way.
When will the evil Republicans Pounce, wishing ill on Sleepy Creepy Joe or the Lizard Lady Kamala?
With all that time in the basement and all that discipline of the mask, yet the virus got through. Must have caught it at one of Joe’s super spreader events? Life is strange at times.
There is something going on right now, the messages seem to be shifting and surfacing, Trump packs them in wherever he goes and Biden seems to be talking to his mask, himself and a microphone. If the damn that has been holding what I consider to be facts about the Biden family and furthermore the truth about the trash that has been dumped on Trump then I think Trump really has a chance to win in a few weeks. I don’t know but I am kind of getting that little bit of optimism that I had at this time four years ago. Trump is indeed a strong healthy man and poor old Biden, cough, cough, not so much.
Well that was different. On PJ Media they had a running thread that I read through. I watched the last half hour of Biden’s townhall. Softball questions for Biden who got off long meandering responses. He did appear alert but frequently out of breathe. In short ZZZZZzzzzzzz.
Trump got no quarter and gave no quarter. He was on his game. He took on the tired white supremacy trope and stomped on it. It was good he pivoted to ANTIFA which I wished he would ask if she condemns them. Put it back to her.
The Qanon response was good too. For COVID there is no winning answer for anybody so he stumbled through it adequately. The point of the travel ban is irrefutable so it was good he stayed on that.
Guthrie was prepared and aggressive. I don’t fault her. She was ready to counter the WHO Mask study results.
The pro-life republican woman was a plant. No way any pro-life woman would ask about safe abortions.
The immigration lady helped humanize him about his smile and how he easily talked with her about where her grandparents came from. She had to be Jewish
Trump’s strong answers.
– Not talking about Supreme Court nominees concerning case law
– Placing stimulus delay squarely on Pelosi
– How he has helped the minority community
– Immigration/DACA plans
– What he plans to do in his second term
Trump weak answers:
– COVID including how he was tested
– Income Taxes (no way he can win). The easy answer is that his properties pays taxes and he get the profits and that is what he pays income tax on.
– Healthcare, the Republicans were the dog that caught the car and they still can’t come up with a plan. Sooooooo sad.
Trump mediocre answer:
– Transfer of power. He really was strong on voter fraud and didn’t accept Guthrie’s blow off response. He talked about how the Obama administration tried to sabotage his campaign then administration and he could have hammered on that point over and over and force Guthrie to concede it was true.
Grade for Biden from what I saw C+ (stayed coherent with very little stammer)
Grade for Trump from what I saw A- (Covid drove it down)
Thanks to I am Sparticus for that rundown.
Judging from some stories I’ve read, Trump did have a debate – with the moderator.
They don’t even need Biden on the stage anymore.
I’m glad there was no in-person meeting, though; if Biden gets sick from his staffers, the Democrats would have accused Trump of insidiously infecting him with stealth Covid germs.
Somehow.
I’m glad they dropped the mask and just made Trump debate the moderator. That’s uncharacteristically honest of them.
The white supremacy question…again. Ugh.
Savannah Guthrie: Do you denounce white supremacy?”
Donald Trump: “I denounce white supremacy.”
Savannah Guthrie: “It feels sometimes you’re hesitant to do so.”
FFS. I know they’re corrupt and morally bankrupt. But it just gets so tiresome.
Overall, I think he did very well. I think they’re correct over at Ace that this was made to have Trump vs. women (moderator/guests) and they wanted him to bully them like he did Wallace and Biden and he didn’t hammer some points because he didn’t want to step into that trap.
I saw some of the Trump event. Since I don’t watch much TV, this was my first look at Savannah Guthrie. Piercing voice, aggressively interrupting, many annoying questions. Ten minutes talking about masks? This will be my last look at Savannah Guthrie, I hope.
Well it looks like the obsessive mask wearing, social distancing protocols the Biden camp employed didn’t work. Validates the CDC finding …
Those town halls were another example of how this election is a national IQ test. You have to be beyond stupid to not notice the difference in how the media treated Biden and Trump.
Amazingly enough, there are people out there who still think the mainstream media is credible and trustworthy. One of the few silver linings to a potential Biden Presidency is watching those people utterly lose faith in their favorite news sources when things go to hell. I mean, it’s not like they’re going to blame themselves for being too dumb to see it coming.
Mike
I did not watch any of it, but let me guess some of the questions tossed at Biden and Trump.
Questions asked of Biden:
1. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
2. What are your favorite basketball, baseball, football teams?
3. What was your favorite TV show growing up?
Questions asked of Trump:
1. Which historical figure do you most admire; Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot?
2. If slavery existed today in the USA would you own 50, 100, 500 slaves?
3. Did you intentionally unleash the coronavirus in the USA, which so far has killed about 250,000 Americans, hoping that only demokrat voters would be die from the virus?
4. What do you say to the vast majority of your supporters that in overwhelming numbers are members of the KKK and the American Nazi Party?
5. How many children have you sexually assautled?
LOL John Tyler.
Watched a little of the Trump inquisition. Again, my viewing is restricted because it upsets my wife when I use bad language; and my self control has eroded badly.
First a bit of background, then the reason for posting. I frequently disparage my daily rag, so why do I subscribe? Well, they conned me into resubscribing after I previously left by offering four days a week, spanning the weekend, at the ridiculous price of $40 for a year (previously $30+/mo for daily. I know that I am helping to inflate their subscription numbers but, She likes the crosswords. She deserves some pleasure during lock down). So, this morning I was curious about how they covered the town halls. No surprises. The lead front page story, withr an AP byline, began with the headline “Dueling Town Halls”. Then it tells me that the character and policy positions of the two candidates were displayed and contrasted. Needless to say it went down hill from there. That was enough. I threw it aside, as I am wont to do, and came to see what Neo and her followers had to say.
The media has reached a level of credibility such that if TV reports that it is sunny, one would be wise to carry an umbrella if venturing out of lock down.
Anent your subscribing to a poor newspaper just because it’s cheap:
If you’re not familiar with it, Google “Michael Chrichton’s Gell-Mann Amnesia effect.”
F, I guess I did not make myself clear.
I subscribe because my wife enjoys their cross word puzzles. Yes, the fact that they offered it at that price was a factor, since I was willing to pay that much for a very small segment of the paper. More germane to my point is that it was indicative of their desperation to keep their subscription levels up. I expect that has an effect on their advertising revenue.
BTW, I confused headlines. The paper’s reads: “Trump, Biden duel at a distance”
Oldflyer,
How much of the physical paper is complete garbage these days? I used to simply throw away the Sunday A and B sections. Sports section was (years ago, haven’t checked recently) top-notch, still love that Sunday crossword, and the cooking section has always been great. Even the overall-awful Arts and Book Review sections would occasionally have something worthwhile.
Donald Trump, which aired on three stations – NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, drew a grand total of 13 million viewers.
Joe Biden, which aired on ABC alone, drew nearly 1 million more viewers, coming in at 13.9 million.
That’s not nothing.
I see it has been billed as Mr Rogers and your Crazy Uncle!
I will say it was absurd to have it done this way. It served no one to have, what was likely, Democrats watching Biden and Republicans watching Trump. The whole idea of a debate is to have everyone watching both candidates and deciding who’s best. At the very least they should have been an hour apart.
So now Fox reporting that the Dems/ABC had their thumb on the scale in terms of “public questioners” No real surprise here, they cheat every chance they get.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-town-hall-questioners-former-obama-speechwriter-wife-pennsylvania-democrat
Montage:
Old Creepy Corrupt Joe and his Crack Head Hunter – somehow doesn’t fit with Mr Rogers. Any other wisdom to share on what is best?
Twitter and Fakebook will tell you what is best and what you can see. Have the told you about the 400k ballots in CA sent to incorrect or deceased “voters.?”
Om
‘Worst self-own I’ve seen this political season’: Mr. Rogers trends after Trump adviser goes after Biden town hall.
Mr. Rogers was trending Thursday night after Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, compared Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s town hall to the beloved show.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/16/mr-rogers-trends-after-trump-adviser-compares-biden-iconic-tv-host/3674525001/
Montage:
Trending on Twitter or USA Today? Would that be USA Today that had the unbiased moderator in the VP debate? And I should trust them?
Nothing to see about Creepy Corrupt Joe and Crack Head Hunter’s laptop on your social(ist) media. Wonder why. Biden corruption like Antifa are just an idea.
MBunge
wrt the national IQ test: I saw a post by an anti-trumpet who’s been pretty out there and thought about responding. But, besides threatening a friendship, it would be like kicking a puppy.
Some of the people I know who oppose Trump have various positions on the subject, mostly believing lies.
But there are what i have to call “mush heads”.
If they say something like. “Diversity is our strength,” it would be cruel to ask, doubly so in public, ‘Do you have anything empirical on that?” It would be a shock to hear any reference to facts, or to find one is expected to have them.
For the mush heads, MEAN TWEETS matter more than improved employment, improved prospects for minorities, peace in the Middle East. And this is particularly so among those who are forever fretting about minorities and peace and war and so forth.
Maybe I’m on to something with my recent musings that we’ve rounded off so many sharp corners that the consequences of making stupid decisions are so minimal that thinking rather than guessing or emoting has not turned out to be a necessary process.
But still, I refrain from certain discussions because it would be….cruel How weird is that? Also useless.
Om
It was trending on Twitter last night. You don’t have to believe it at all. It’s not about truth it’s about what’s trending and therefore gets known by millions in a short time. Hunter Biden laptop is trending too but I was commenting on something related to the dueling Town Halls.
Richard+Aubrey, you just gave me an idea that is unfortunately four years too late, but what the heck – I’ll state it anyway so that I can be at peace.
A cute rebus that the Trump campaign could have used: a little logo of a trumpet next to a couple of small copper coins! Trump… Pence! 😀
Alas, probably too late now. It wouldn’t really have fit Trump’s style, I grant, but it would have had something of the flavor of the nineteenth-century campaigns with their cute little slogans, Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, that sort of stuff. Who was it back then who had the coonskin hat as a symbol? Harrison? Jackson?
Oldflyer– A long time ago, in a city far away from me now, someone started a local newspaper. I think it was 3 days a week and it had real news, local stories also and classified ads (so its before the internet and Craig’s List existed) and it was free, delivered to every front porch in town, I asked a guy who had a 40 year run going as a reporter for another paper, how they could do that without going broke. He said that the amount they could charge for advertising, especially the “want ads” was dependent on the circulation, paid or otherwise, AND they had to meet a certain circulation threshold before they qualified to print legal notices, which is evidently a moneymaker.
As the paper became popular and people started complaining if they didn’t get one, surprise! they went to a paid subscription model. I don’t know if their circulation numbers suffered from that.
Not that the above has anything to do with our topic…. but your decision to spring for the paper was a wise decision… 🙂
Phillip Sells @ 4:11: as I recall the coonskin cap was a symbol of
Davy Crockett
David Crockett was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier”. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Texas Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett
R2L, yes, definitely Crockett I remember; but I had thought there was some presidential candidate of that era who made use of that or a similar image as well. No matter. Maybe Crockett had sole ownership of that particular icon and I’m just getting the wires crossed.
“I will say it was absurd to have it done this way. It served no one to have, what was likely, Democrats watching Biden and Republicans watching Trump. The whole idea of a debate is to have everyone watching both candidates and deciding who’s best. At the very least they should have been an hour apart.” – Montage
Three out of four I agree with.
The debates did not have to come out live at any particular time*; they are always recorded and available later. So, Democrats could watch Trump and Republicans watch Biden if they wanted to.
They don’t want to.
Would be interesting to see the demographic break down of the viewer numbers.
*NBC was clearly trying to siphon viewers away from ABC. They may all be pitching the Democrat’s game, but they are still in competition with each other.
Just the News emphasizes that it is the network’s omission of the questioners ties that is questionable. I don’t think they were ever declared to be “undecided” as in the earlier instance of partisan ringers.
https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/two-biden-town-hall-questioners-linked-prominent-democrats-abc-news-failed
“The same thing happened in a town hall televised earlier this month by NBC.”
I don’t know about the participants in Trump’s town hall.
At least they didn’t try to pretend that Guthrie was undecided.
The MSM just won’t take “yes” for an answer.
Once more, with feeling.
Fractal Rabbit: a picture is worth a thousand news reports.
https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2020/10/Screen-Shot-2020-10-04-at-5.16.10-PM.png?w=1160&ssl=1
PS – did that remark by Guthrie* sound a lot like wifesplaining?
https://babylonbee.com/news/husbands-perfect-communication-causes-fight
*I checked to make sure; she really did say it.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/trump-townhall-guthrie-qanon/2020/10/15/id/992237/
Phillip Sells– “Politician Estes Kefauver of Tennessee adopted the coonskin cap as a personal trademark during his successful 1948 campaign for election to the United States Senate.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coonskin_cap#Estes_Kefauver
You may know that the Davy Crockett TV show and the caps were huge in the 50’s. My brother and I had the caps.
You might also recall that Curly Howard of The Three Stooges wore a skunk-skin hat in some of his films.
Philip Sells on October 16, 2020 at 4:11 pm said:
Richard+Aubrey, you just gave me an idea that is unfortunately four years too late, but what the heck – I’ll state it anyway so that I can be at peace.
* * *
I’ve got Trumpence, jolly, jolly Trumpence, I’ve got Trumpence to last me all my life.
I’ve got Trumpence to spend, and Trumpence to lend, and Trumpence to send home to my wife (poooor wife).
Haven’t thought of that old camp song in years – popularized by Mitch Miller’s Singalong show in the sixties.
https://sheetmusicsinger.com/greatestsongs/ive-got-sixpence/
(Music trivia: it is derived from a Welsh folk song, Da Yw Swllt, that comes from the coal mining community.)
“And this is particularly so among those who are forever fretting about minorities and peace and war and so forth.”- Richard Aubrey (to plus or not to plus…)
Which goes to show that their concern is cost-free virtue-signalling, not genuine compassion.
This is such a good story, it could go on several threads, but since the filmmaker flipped from Biden to Trump, this is a natural home for it.
Lots of details and insightful observations so RTWT.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/10/16/dem-filmmaker-does-a-180-on-illegal-immigration-after-researching-topic-for-documentary/