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Trump Wins Second Debate. Will It Be Enough?
The second debate was a completely different animal from the first. President Trump and former Vice President Biden were able to present their answers, arguments, and attacks without constant interruptions from each other or the moderator.
The new muted mics rule worked quite well and we should expect to see it in future debates. When one candidate answered a question, the other’s mic was muted. After both provided their statements, the mics were left open for that lively partisan bickering we’ve come to expect.
This worked greatly to Donald Trump’s favor.
The President vastly improved his performance, holding Joe Biden’s feet to the fire while maintaining his cool. Biden turned in the journeyman performance one would expect from a frontrunner. His job was to remain upright and not commit some outlandish gaffe, a feat he achieved. And yet…
That tricky Trump fellow laid several traps and Joe eagerly jumped right into them.
To start the debate, Trump hit Biden hard on the growing “laptop from hell” controversy. Biden’s answers were either unsatisfactory or downright deceptive; that will come back to bite him. Since about 20 minutes were dedicated to the issue, the press will have a hard time maintaining their embargo.
Impressively, Trump focused on the Biden family’s lucrative arrangements with China, Russia, and Ukraine in a relaxed manner. His “more in sadness than in anger” tone raised question after question without the need to bang the table. Trump concern-trolled the hell out of Biden and it worked like a charm.
He also got Joe to deny that he ever wanted ban fracking, although we saw him say just that in the Democratic primary debates. Trump has the video and promised to release it yet again to our ever-incurious press.
When Biden blasted Trump over putting children in cages, POTUS kept reminding him that Obama created them. “Who built the cages, Joe?” Trump kept asking. Biden had no response.
Biden’s worst moment was when Trump actually got him to admit that he will end the US oil industry. Later, Joe tried to massage that promise but Trump highlighted it repeatedly, calling out voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and Oklahoma to pay close attention to what that will mean for their jobs. Let a thousand ads bloom.
In addition to creating headaches for himself, Biden was remarkably inconsistent. Angry one moment, fake laughing the next, marble-mouthing convoluted answers. His energy level waxed and waned over the 90-minute affair, while Trump always appeared in command.
Moderator Kristen Welker of NBC wasn’t as dreadful as Chris Wallace or Savannah Guthrie, but she was faster to interrupt Trump than Biden, especially when the President was on a roll. According to the numbers, there were 24 interTrumps to two for Biden. And, of course, all the questions came from the left.
By the end of Thursday’s debate, the former vice president was looking at his watch, a move that doomed George H.W. Bush’s re-election (at least according to the press at the time). It was a visual reminder that Biden is playing a Prevent Defense and hoping to run out the clock.
A lot can happen in the second half of the fourth quarter. Tonight, Trump was moving down the field.
Published in General
That is very wishful thinking, but it would certainly be a game changer… especially if those votes were all in Philadelphia.
And look at that. More world peace. Sudan is now going to recognize Isreal and normalize relations. I dont care about his tweets or his character. I care about results. And he is giving me world peace. I will take it.
I am hopeful.
In the end this is what makes me happy and proud to vote for Trump rather than just against the Dems. He is actually improving the situation in the middle east. I never thought I would see that in my lifetime. I know @garyrobbins disagrees but sometimes one unique service for mankind will forgive a multitude of petty crimes.
Forgotten but not gone.
To begin, the entire concept of Russia preferring Trump over Biden (or Clinton) is absurd on its face. It first requires a memory so short that people don’t remember all the things that happened throughout the Obama administration. Or could it be that they don’t remember because they never knew?
Most of you probably know that the “pi” in my screen name has nothing to do with math, nor computers. The first requirement of any investigator is objectivity. The second is curiosity, driving the need to find the evidence. And then constantly asking, “Is this so?” And understanding the realm of evidence in which one is working. In the case of Hunter’s laptop, outside (so far) of the criminal realm, the standard is not “beyond a reasonable doubt,” but the “preponderance of evidence.” And here, the “laptop from hell” reigns. The emails fit and explain previously – known events, and have led to uncovering previously – unknown or unnoticed connections. Ignoring the statements of the computer repair person, there’s Hunter’s signature on the invoice. There’s the other content that point to Hunter. There’s the silence from the people who really should have denied the whole thing (sometimes that which is not said, says more than that which is said). And if it were a hoax of any sort, the set-up would have to have begun years ago, with Joe’s and Hunter’s full cooperation.
Then there’s this thing of Hunter’s representative (as I understand it was his attorney) contacting the shop owner, asking for the return of Hunter’s hard drive. Originally I dismissed this, thinking even a drug – addled Hunter couldn’t be that stupid. Apparently I was wrong.
But who will ever know?
Attorneys aren’t necessarily very smart either. We have direct evidence of that on a regular basis.
Actually what Biden said is “Zero carbon emissions in 2025.
That only happens is we are all dead.
@garyrobbins
DNI John Ratcliffe says info on Hunter Biden laptop isn’t Russian disinformation
Oct 19,2020
FBI Says Hunter Biden Laptop Not Russian Disinformation
The FBI has possession of the Hunter Biden laptop referenced in the New York Post reporting and has determined the laptop is not a Russian disinformation effort and the emails as reported in the media are “authentic,” Fox News reported Tuesday.
WSJ Editorial Board: Joe Biden Must Answer Questions About Hunter Biden and China
You must have really done some research on the Hunter Biden laptop councilor . Or did you just watch the View?
One of the critical roles of an investigator is to keep their attorney – clients in reality. Not all attorneys listen. Thankfully, my clients did.
Forget their reputation. While there are bad eggs in every occupation, the overwhelming majority of attorneys are highly ethical. Their codes of ethics prohibit them lying in court. But they still have to represent their clients. They are their clients’ voices, and that creates the appearance of them being liars and co-conspirators. I have never questioned Gary’s ethics.
I just finished reading McCullough’s excellent biography of John Adams, and was reminded that he took the case of the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. He did it against overwhelming public sentiment. It was the right thing. The soldiers were acquitted. Because that’s what the evidence and testimony demonstrated.
That doesn’t mean I’ve never encountered attorneys so dumb that I can’t figure out how they passed the bar exam. I’ve encountered one or two. They’re that rare. Gary is not in this group, either.
That is a very good thing. Good on Trump on that.
See my comment #102. Good on Trump on Sudan and the Middle East and Sudan.
Well, I probably should have added to my previous comment, that Hunter might have been getting advice from his business attorney, not from a criminal-law attorney who might have had very different advice. Someone might be an excellent business attorney but one would still have to be quite foolish to take their advice on what could be a criminal matter.
Still, I’d bet that nothing Trump does, no success he has, would persuade you to vote for him. It wouldn’t even persuade you to leave the presidential choice blank. That is why I can’t take you seriously anymore.
And you won’t get it with Biden, Gary.
No because Trump and Trumpism must be purged from the Party of Reagan®
There’s no thought, no rationality, just blind hate.
@garyrobbins
See my comment #100.
Cat got your tongue?
Speaking of blind, irrational Trump hate, how far off the deep end do you have to go when this is the person chiding you for your claim? And can you imagine anyone donating to these people?
“Woke vs. NeverTrump” is fun to watch.
I resisted that conclusion for as long as I could, but I admit now that you were correct all along.
It’s been obvious since the insane screeds about legal challenges to the vote, unfaithful electors and the 25th amendment before Trump was even inaugurated.
Gary wasn’t the worst of the bunch, or so it seemed to me, so I tried to give benefit of any doubt. That’s in the past.
If this article is grounded in reality, the GOP is Trump’s party now.
https://news.yahoo.com/even-trump-loses-trumpism-may-140002234.html
Conclusive evidence that the Lincoln Project is incredibly ignorant of American history. Incomprehensible ignorance.
“Trumpism” existed before Trump came down the escalator and announced. The movement just took its name from the first person who stepped up to lead it on the national level.
No. I just don’t respond to a half dozen people who have shown themselves to be wholly inappropriate. You are one of them.
Nothing good ever comes out of arguing with you. I have neither the time, nor the inclination to wrestle in the mud with you.
One meme died last night, that Joe Biden suffers from dementia.
Interesting that no one has acknowledged that Biden’s comments were cogent and displayed no sign of dementia.
You really believe that?
Wow.
Get over yourself. You disrespect everyone else here by avoiding discussion and acting like you’re above all of us when we ask you to rationalize your positions.