The US 2020 Presidential Election

[astralis]

that was painful, stopped watching after an hour.

[DOR]

Disgraceful.
The moderator must have direct control of the microphone on/off switch.

I see no reason why there should be more presidential debates.

[tbm3fan]

that was painful, stopped watching after an hour.

You watched? Trump is not a debater. I doubt he can remember policy talking points to begin with. I fully expected him to do just what he did insult and interrupt worse than he did with HRC. You go with what you are best at and along with lying, cheating at taxes, he has perfected deflection by insults as evidenced tonight. That being said the moderator sucked big time and lost total control in the first minutes from what I read. The reputation of Chris Wallace just took a hit. My god just think about the other two on the docket. I agree with DOR as to what is the point of further matches.

[TopHatter]

Disgraceful.
The moderator must have direct control of the microphone on/off switch.

I see no reason why there should be more presidential debates.

Both sides would have to agree to that and there's no way that Trump is going to disappoint his base. They want Trump to be Trump: A rude combative, actually childish, asshole.

He can't do that if he can't interrupt people every 5 seconds.

That being said the moderator sucked big time and lost total control in the first minutes from what I read. The reputation of Chris Wallace just took a hit. My god just think about the other two on the docket.

Chris Wallace lost an enormous amount of credibility, no question about it. He should've known better than to take this gig. It was a lose-lose scenario, like everything else involving Donald Trump.

I agree with DOR as to what is the point of further matches.

That makes 2 of us

[TopHatter]

Trump refuses to denounce white supremacy, orders Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by'

President Trump refused to denounce white supremacy during an intense debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden Tuesday night.

“Almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing,” Trump said when directly asked to denounce white supremacists and militia groups who have aligned themselves with him.

Trump asked moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News to “give me a name,” then Biden chimed in and noted the Proud Boys, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group.

The Proud Boys describe themselves as “a pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists” and have been tied to violent protests, often in support of the president.

“Proud Boys — stand back and stand by,” Trump said Tuesday night.

Trump then moved attention to the left-wing anti-fascist movement known as antifa.

“Somebody has got to do something about antifa and the left because this isn’t a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing problem,” Trump said.

Biden then noted that FBI Director Christopher Wray has said antifa is not a formal organization, but an ideology.

“Well then, you know what, he’s wrong,” Trump said of Wray.
____________

Anybody want to keep justifying the "very fine people on both sides" comment? How about you surfgun, you've been awfully quiet lately. Any of this stirring your sense of morality? Your sense of right and wrong? Your sense of civility and barbarity?

Donald Trump just issued a direct command his base and his base responded in the affirmative.



These are the people that follow Donald Trump and obey him. He made that abundantly clear tonight.

[tbm3fan]

Ah, shades of the SA...

[tbm3fan]

Well if nothing else the Vice-Presidential debate should be a huge contrast in decorum as I don't see Pence behaving that way.

[Bigfella]

Disgraceful.
The moderator must have direct control of the microphone on/off switch.

I see no reason why there should be more presidential debates.

A better idea would be to only have the mic of the person answering the question on, then turn it off as soon as time is up. Each person gets 1min to reply. That way no one can accuse the Mods of tipping the scales. OK, Trumpers will do that reflexively, but they will look even more cultlike than usual. Trump could yell if he wanted to, but it would sound especially pathetic fro he other side of the stage.

Unfortunately, as TH points out, both sides would need to agree and Trump won't. Constantly talking and shouting over his opponent is a key debate tactic for Trump. It is his way to get his opponent off balance, and he knows that his base just laps up that sort of thing. Incoherent, ignorant old white guys shouting everyone else down is basically how they think the world should work. The fact that it doesn't always work is a part of their victimhood mythology.

[JRT]

The moderators for the next debate damn well better have a plan for dealing with Trump. Otherwise debates are pointless when one of the participants is a disrespectful child that won't wait his turn.

With Donald J. Trump involved in this, they need to bring it down to his level with a game show format, where contestants are locked into separate soundproof booths, where the contestants can hear everything said, but can only be heard when the moderator activates their booth, and the booth lighting changes to show when a booth is activated.

[Albany Rifles]

Well if nothing else the Vice-Presidential debate should be a huge contrast in decorum as I don't see Pence behaving that way.

Sadly, Tim Kaine was ordered to play the pitbull 4 years ago and played into Pence's hands. It was completely unnatural for the man and it showed....I've known Tim for almost 20 years.

If Pence tries to pull the Trump Crap Kamala Harris needs to remind him of Pence's reaction when things went sideways 4 years ago.

[TopHatter]

With Donald J. Trump involved in this, they need to bring it down to his level with a game show format, where contestants are locked into separate soundproof booths, where the contestants can hear everything said, but can only be heard when the moderator activates their booth, and the booth lighting changes to show when a booth is activated.

For an actual debate, yeah. But debates have been about theater as much as substance, probably going back to Kennedy/Nixon.

[astralis]

I used to think the most annoying thing about debates was the desperate attempt for someone to come up with a catchy zinger.

I now realize that I'll take that all day long over the filth that comes out of Trump's mouth. seriously, in another era, someone would have demanded satisfaction with pistols at dawn over the personal attacks.

[tbm3fan]

Their next meeting is to be town hall style where an undecided voter can ask a question directed to a candidate. I wonder if Trump will try to answer not only his questions but also Biden's questions by interrupting him once again and interrupting the voter asking the question at the same time?

[TopHatter]

Their next meeting is to be town hall style where an undecided voter can ask a question directed to a candidate. I wonder if Trump will try to answer not only his questions but also Biden's questions by interrupting him once again and interrupting the voter asking the question at the same time?

I wonder if any of the town hall citizens will call Trump out on anything, or if their questions have to be submitted in advance.

I'd love to see someone demand to know why Trump was giving orders to white supremacists to "Stand by".

Or even just ask "Why won't you ever let anyone finish their answer?"

[TopHatter]

Debate Commission Calls for More ‘Structure’ to Debates

The Commission on Presidential Debates issued a statement:

Last night’s debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues.

The CPD will be carefully considering the changes that it will adopt and will announce those measures shortly. The Commission is grateful to Chris Wallace for the professionalism and skill he brought to last night’s debate and intends to ensure that additional tools to maintain order are in place for the remaining debates.
__________

Two thoughts about this:

Why this wasn't done prior to last night's debate is utterly baffling, given that the entire world knows that Donald Trump behaves like a spoiled child.

But that immediately begs the question, what do they think they can do to keep Trump from behaving like Trump?