I listened to the first hour of the presidential debate last night before it going to bed. It was much better than the previous edition. President Trump behaved himself which proves that he can when it suits his purpose and VP Biden returned to his themes faithfully.
I sometimes wonder whether the art of being a politician consists in actually believing the lies you tell. It’s a facility I’ve noticed in salesmen. I’m not sure what the most egregious lie was there were so many of them. I thought the most astonishing lie was when VP Biden actually re-upped on what Politifact deemed the “Lie of the Year” in 2013—President Obama’s repeated claim that “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it”. Does anyone actually dispute that a national public option would, at the very least at the margins, put private insurance plans out of business?
Did I miss anything by not listening to the last half hour?
Did you catch the section where Biden analogued Kim Jong Un with Hitler… a rather alarming hint on his mindset.
Or Biden saying Lincoln was the most racist President ever (I think that was a misspeak).
Or Biden challenging Trump to put up a video that he (Biden) ever said he would ban fracking…. then turning around saying he wants to transition away from fossil fuels altogether by 2025.
Or Trump showing his weakness, a lack of empathy during discussion about racism; the talk and BLM.
Agreed it was a far more informative debate.
Didn’t watch, but seen references to what Biden said his public option would be: “The public option is an option that says if you in fact do not have the wherewithal to be — if you qualify for Medicaid and you do not have the wherewithal in your state to get Medicaid you automatically are enrolled.”
The campaign website describes the public option as the same that Obama campaigned for, but apparently this is not the first time he’s described the public option as a Medicaid option.
CuriousOnlooker:
Several of those statements took place just as I was going up the stairs. My reaction was that both Trump and Biden are lousy debaters. I could have skewered either or both of them.
I haven’t watch debates in years and nothing I’ve heard suggests that was wrong this time around.
It’s all signaling. Biden or any President (to include Trump) can have any plan he wants about anything, but what does or doesn’t come out of the sausage-making in Congress is something else entirely. Frankly, I’m still amazed that so many people take domestic proposals from Presidential candidates seriously. It’s like they don’t know basic civics.
“transition away from fossil fuels altogether by 2025.“
He can’t be so far into his dotage to not know that’s impossible.
Also makes clear voters don’t really care about policy, or anything beyond feelings or anyone selling that slop would be laughed off the stage.
“We are going to build a 30 foot wall across the entire border and Mexico will pay for it.”
“We will have health care for everyone, it will be better and it will be cheaper. It will be easy.”
Somehow half of the country didnt laugh at those.
Steve
“Did I miss anything by not listening to the last half hour?”
Biden started to fade. He shot himself in the foot on fracking and fossil fuels.
“We are going to build a 30 foot wall across the entire border and Mexico will pay for it.â€
Still a damn good idea.