Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
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
This doesn’t surprise me. Democrats err in their assumption that anyone non-white is automatically a proponent of far-left/socialist ideology. They seem to forget how many fled to the Unites States to get away from that sort of thing.
Or is he just trolling us to get a rise?
The Lincoln Project is composed of some of the most despicable former so-called Republicans ever, including Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson. They are responsible for these billboards in Times Square. They depict Ivanka Trump pointing at the numbers of deaths from Covid 19 and smiling while Jared Kushner is quoted saying New Yorkers are going to suffer and he doesn’t care. Both ads are total lies.
Is it just me, or is anyone else picking up a heap of anti-Semitism here? Two notable Jewish people smiling over the deaths of New Yorkers? Holy cow!
The sum point of my comments has been that Trump’s messaging not policies have not been great. I specifically stated the need to stay healthy and keep the economy open, so yeah it is “okay to work and stuff” and no one needs to hide in their basement. Not sure who you are debating but your “questions” are virtually unrelated to anything I have said.
Politics frequently involves pandering to people.I have trouble in my part of fly over country finding gas without ethanol because we pander to the farmers. To win elections you need to meet the electorate where they are.
People are worried, there health care providers tell them they should be worried. Voters tell pollsters that one of if not the biggest issue in this election is Covid. If Trump loses one of the main factors in that loss will be the Covid response.
Elections and people are funny things. You don’t want voters to feel comfortable being afraid. That is actually how you lose and lose big. Making voters uncomfortable for there feelings will is not going to get you a lot of converts. Suck it up buttercup is not a winning message.
”I know you are afraid, this is scary stuff but here is what we are doing, and here is what you can do to stay healthy and keep the economy going” is a much better message. Don’t minimize the infection or make people uncomfortable but show them a path while validating their concerns.
I would much rather win the election then concern myself with wether scared people are being coddled. They are scared because the majority of health care providers tell them to be scared.
No one is saying Biden would be better.
The current research shows that the severity of the infection and whether someone will be hospitalized is at least partially tied to the initial viral load. How much of the virus got to you when you were first infected.
So new cases are spiking in a number of places but the deaths are falling. So of this is that we are getting better at treating the sick and some is likely that mask use is at least to an extent lowering the initial viral loads, meaning people will get sick but not as seriously ill.
Looks like the Lincoln Project has been threatened with a lawsuit over these billboards.
I hope it happens. I hope they lose big.
I’m not a Doctor, Gary. What I see as a layperson when Biden squints his eyes in the middle of a thought to give himself a pause to organize his thoughts, just feels like he is having trouble. But beyond that, he and you and the entire Democrat Party with your “Dark Winter” ominous phraseology and constant fearmongering and the complete lack of joy in your aura, ( I am associating you with the Democrats because you have, yourself, chosen to be one of them) is the opposite of Trump positivism for America. I choose joy and light. You can have your unhappy darkness.
I like this. “…we will sue you for what will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages.”
I don’t know that Biden has dementia, but he is definitely displaying the slowness and creakiness that comes with old age. Biden has always been quite strange too. Now he is old and strange. He also looks older than his years. I think it may be the cosmetic enhancements he uses (and yes Trump looks ridiculous too, but he doesn’t look frail and elderly). The gleaming white teeth, the hair plugs and the way his skin is stretched over his face remind me of a corpse after the undertaker has gussied it up for viewing.
Also the fact that he obviously can’t handle much of a daily schedule and is always disappearing into his house. They are deathly scared he will get Covid and methinks he would not come out of it like Trump did. How is a guy like that supposed to be President? And then we get Kamala …. shudder!
There defense is laughable. That the Trumps respond to a false and misleading attack shows that the Lincoln Project is living rent free in there heads? That is not how living rent free in a persons head works.
Trumps don’t accept the First Amendment. One might hope that with as much time as these hacks spend with the Liberal media they might have learned that the Court has accepted there are exceptions like defamation to the first amendment.
Given that they used an unrelated quote from before the pandemic and made it seem like Jared was talking about Covid deaths, I should hope the Trump family would win. The Lincoln Project pulled the quote so they know when it was said and in what context. Knowingly publishing a falsehood to harm another meets a number of the elements of defamation.
Why don’t these (redacted) just announce they are Democrats. No self respecting Republican would ever hire these guys again
Gary reacts to facts such as these in almost the same way Dracula reacts to a cross.
This guy is too old for the Presidency. That is simply a fact.
I realize that Biden and Whitmer have the same timeless look, ageless style, wrinkle-free faces and drawn-tight eyes that too aggressive facelifts produce.
But about Biden’s squint, his drastic plastic surgery has left him beady-eyed. He can’t even open his eyes all the way, and his right eye is more drawn closed than his left. He looks like he’s always sadly winking at someone.
I don’t dispute any of that. And I wear a surgical mask properly every time I go into a grocery store, which is about the only place I’m going into these days.
My problem is with medical professionals suggesting — for political purposes? — that President Trump didn’t do exactly as you and Kozak suggest — finding a happy medium between panic and indifference. What was the emergency procurement of PPE about? The hours-long daily briefings? The hospital ships to New York? Expediting treatments and vaccines? While staying within the constitutional bounds of the president’s authority. I would like your wife to be consoled by the federal response under President Trump to a perilous situation. I doubt any administration would have done better.
Christopher Wray Hardest Hit
Replying to@BuckSexton
Hiding. His. Own. Easter. Eggs.
(Laughed out loud at the image.)
There is a confused old man wandering on the stage behind Jill Biden. Someone help him.
And the FBI is still trying to conceal this.
the Senate was going to interview Hunter Bidens partner Bobulinski Friday, and the FBI suddenly decided they want to interview him so the Senate testimony gets shelved. Meanwhile the FBI will sit on their paper notes and refuse to comment because of an “ongoing investigation”.
I have a serious problem with all those who hate Trump and accuse him of not doing enough. He has done far more than any President has in the past, seen us through the spike with fewer deaths, 2 million if you believe the models, and deserves our gratitude for doing it while restraining the federal impulse to dictate from above, something the other side wouldn’t have done. By delegating power to the governors as the Constitution requires, he put his own reputation at stake, dependent on the performance of each governor. We had 50 test cases, unless you add DC and territories, not one centralized one, a true model of federalism. Rather than learn from each state, the Democrats and Trump haters have been solely fixated on blaming Trump, not on what is good for the country. One method they used was instilling fear, turning half the country into Jello Jigglers, scared of their own shadow. I am sorry to see doctors/nurses, [even teachers] joining the media, lawyers, and journalists on my list of partisan hacks I can no longer trust.
I approve of all of this. I think these are all great examples of having the policies right.
None of this has anything to do with what I have been saying. Leadership and Politics are more than having the right policy.
You can not let your message step on your actions. I love that Trump fights back against the Dems, the media, and social justice/antifa/ PC types. You don’t fight the average voter. You inform and hopefully inspire them or at least give them confidence in your plan. That is how you win.
Some of the disconnect is that you guys seem to be arguing for what should be, Trump did good and should get credit. I am stating what is/maybe, based on my frequent conversations with people in health care and the polling, the messaging has failed. Trump should focus on correcting this to the extent it is possible for the remainder of the campaign.
Finally by and large health care workers are not acting politically. They are behaving as they always do. Every year they tell us how bad the flu is, to get a shot, cover a cough, wash hands and stay home if ill.
This illness is somewhat more contagious and somewhat more severe than the flu and is new. So they added masks and increased social distancing. Their message remains take serious illness serious.
Great message of unity isn’t it?
Will it be enough? YES
Biden shot himself in the foot by saying we need to transition out of oil and gas
That will flip NM and CO to Trump
Just got an email from a CA friend regarding Trump:
Back in 2016, this person asked me WTH would make anyone vote for Trump. I gave the best answer I could manage, which was not a sales pitch for Trump, but my own understanding of Trump’s popularity. He clearly understands now, and I hope there are a lot more like this voter out there.
In that context, “novel” simply means “new,” to differentiate it from all the previous coronaviruses.
But can they collect? The money has already been moved from their left pocket to their right pocket.
Oh you mean they may end up as penniless beggars?
No, I mean that if “The Lincoln Project” as such, has already transferred their millions from “The Lincoln Project” owned by Rick Wilson et al, to their “advertising departments” etc, also owned by Rick Wilson et al, then “The Lincoln Project” as such, has no money to pay a judgement.
And thus was born
Chumps For Trump
Well, I guess it’s debtor’s prison, then.