The third Democratic debate Thursday night was the first of the 2020 presidential election cycle to be narrowed down to just 10 candidates.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1248090
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1248090
I don’t care.
14 Likes
Cry me a river
7 Likes
not posted at you Nemo
5 Likes
Boy, they’re only offering conspiracy theories now. That old Bill Buckley “principled conservatism” has given way to chemtrails-level BS about gun confiscation and environmental terrorists.
12 Likes
You’re really scraping the bottom of the cesspool, TPM. I don’t give a flying fuck what any of those craven gutter snipes have to say.
16 Likes
This must be a placeholder for a real article that’s coming up.
2 Likes
Culled from the cubbyhole of the Elite Deplorables. A self-reinforcing echo chamber on Twitter.
Conservatives appear to be angry because Dem candidates don’t think that shouting “America is the best” counts as a plan for governing. Their idea of a lively debate is a group of rich white men competing to see who can shout “I love America” loudest.
… except that is a facade.
Most of these talking heads are on the payroll of Libertarian extremists. Yes, their notion of “policy” is just ethnocentric shaming and praise for institutionalized prejudice. But the truth is that these are corrupt, ignorant, damaged people who have embraced a crooked system run by crooks for crooks.
ETA: I am unspeakably glad to see that Marianne is gone. I saw that she gave some kind of teary-eyed interview hating on liberals for not buying into her power-crystal campaign. I wish I could drink those tears.
8 Likes
Top takeaway (and I didn’t even watch it): They’re scared, because they know that one of these people will likely beat Trump, and they deal with their fear by hiding behind irony and mockery. If they weren’t scared, they wouldn’t bother watching a debate that many Dem voters like myself didn’t bother to watch (because I can’t get ABC on my streaming-only TV and was too lazy to stream from ABC’s web site, plus I already know most of their positions and it’s still too soon for me to decide who I’ll vote for), let alone mock it. Btw, Dems aren’t looking to “fix” Ocare, rather improve it. Obama himself called it far from ideal and in need of future improvement.
11 Likes
You missed a surprisingly good debate. Lots of substance. Really.
5 Likes
CK
Beto O’ Rourke just said that the story of America didn’t begin on July 4th 1776
Re: Kirk’s belief in Santa
3 Likes
Surely you jest.
Is it just me, or is this debate just unwatchable? I got in late when they were debating Medicare. Nobody points out that Biden’s plan is completely unworkable. He claimed that whenever you decide to switch from private health insurance to Medicare, you can switch. You can even make the switch after you learn you have a disease that your private insurance won’t cover.
This leads to a well known insurance problem called adverse selection. The private insurance companies will be able to sell cheaper insurance than Medicare to healthy people. If those healthy people get sick, the private insurance can just cancel your policy, and you can move to Medicare. That means that Medicare will only have to insure the most expensive people. The private companies can insure all the people who are not expensive to insure. This will break the Medicare system if adverse selection is allowed. If it is not allowed, then if people get sick, they will be left with their private plans that won’t cover that illness. We will be back to the same disfunctional system we have now where people who need the coverage most will not be covered.
Joe Biden could not possibly be this ignorant of how insurance works. I’d hope to elect a President that is smarter than I am. It’s more likely he is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.
It is a simple matter to Google adverse selection if you want to know more about it. Here is one example I found.
I went straight to the comments as I don’t want to rot my brain .
11 Likes
Doesn’t Tomi Laren have some tacky loungewear to make in another country…God why does she HATE AMERICA!?!
2 Likes
Yes, I am aware of adverse selection.
One of the good things about this debate is that the candidates were given sufficient opportunities to present their own best arguments for their plans.
Yes, it would have been better if their opponents were able to pick apart problematic positions, but we don’t need to rely on the candidates to do that. The electorate and the media have plenty of time to do that at our leisure. The purpose of a primary is to allow us to become familiar with each candidate and choose from among them. If we do that well, we’re bound to see some candidates argue for ideas that are flawed. A functional primary season will allow that to happen so that voters have a chance to cull those candidates and positions.
The fact is that previous debates have failed to provide enough opportunities for candidates to stick their necks out far enough for attentive spectators to identify the kinds of flaws you’re talking about.
It’s never going to happen that live human beings are able to present the absolute best arguments for and against policy decisions in real time. Some issues, solutions, and expressions of same are too complicated for another human to grok, study, and respond to within a few seconds. So, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the absolute best that could possibly be hoped for is necessarily far short of perfect wisdom in real time.
The moderators provided prompts related to topics of importance rather than trying to bait the candidates into attacking each other. That’s good, and not all debates are like that.
The candidates were given many opportunities to speak and respond at some length. That’s good and not all debates are like that.
There weren’t any technical flubs. That’s good, and not all debates are like that.
It was not a magically perfect selection machine that identified the ideal candidate. Some bad arguments were left unaddressed. That’s largely the fault of the flawed human candidates, not of the moderators or the format.
If you think you’re able to wisely adjudicate all future policy debates with perfect clarity in real time, I heartily encourage you to offer your services to every organization that hosts presidential debates.
Compared to other debates, this was a good one. I wasn’t alive when the League of Women Voters managed these things, so my frame of reference really only includes debates managed by corporate media coordinating with campaigns. Tonight’s debate was noticeably better. I will take it.
10 Likes
Right now I’m listening to the soundtrack to the first “Star Wars” on a record player hooked into a circa 1980’s Sony stereo system I’ve had forever. The old systems are way better than the digitized stuff. I still get records from fan clubs like Pearl Jam. I even have a portable record player from “Guardians of the Galaxy” So I don’t understand the jibe, sounds like those people are the ones out of touch. Show me someone with high end audio gear, I’ll show you a person who owns at least one record player.
I’m 55 years old. Also, I have an echo auto in my Ford conversion van.
“Alexa, tell the Republicans to fuck right off”.
12 Likes
Don’t take away guns or AR-15s, take away “mass-homicide machines.”
Don’t call them assault rifles, call them “machines designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”
Call them “a terrorist’s best friend.”
Call them “a nightmare for police.”
Call them the “most effective machine ever invented to turn one person’s hate and anger into a pile of dead Americans,”
Blood repulses Trumpp. Talk about the blood, pools of blood. The right is well-practiced at deflecting talk of gun restrictions. Let’s hit them with the blood. Emotion first, then reason.
18 Likes
Just going through HBOs Ailes biopic starring Russel Crowe. It’s not just how predictable, almost scripted, conservative responses are, but the Orwellian lack of variation in the Fox line is what is so striking.
3 Likes
Excuse me, but why is this subject wasting space on TPM at all?
Who cares what these right-wing jerk-offs have to say about what the Democratic candidates said at the debate? OF COURSE they are going to attack everything the Dems said. That’s what Republicans do, fercrisakes.
What a waste of time, effort and valuable space.
6 Likes