Biden's post-debate comeback: From fumble to fiery in 18 hours

boing
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I think it depends on who one means by “Dems” – politicians, or people who vote Dem and aren’t politicians.

I agree with your description for the latter, but for the former, well, do they really want “progress and good for all of society,” especially after Citizens United and other forms of Big Money capture? Maybe some do, especially early in their careers…

I find this cartoon a bit extreme in its bothsiderism, but nonetheless, increasingly apt for our times.

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There certainly is a problem with big dark money in US politics, but remember what the two parties actually do in and out of office.

The Democrats absolutely aren’t angels, but the Republicans definitely are devils. Independents usually suck votes from Democrats because there’s a bigger unfilled space on the left hand side of the Overton window than on the right. So government trends more right wing than the people. You’re not going to fundamentally alter those dynamics by continuing to elect Republicans.

You could do yourselves a favour by banning PACs and limiting the amount of money a party can spend on a campaign. Lots of democracies have those kind of laws. (Not the UK, unfortunately.)

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Not with the current Congress and Supreme Court. SCOTUS already opened the door for today’s dark money and PACs thanks to the Citizens United decision and Congress will never change the laws because it benefits them as well.

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Advance Publications, National Amusements, and The Walt Disney Company, responsible owners of nearly all of the media regurgitating the notion that Biden allegedly failed the entire debate, are creatively stirring drama over our airwaves. At the same time, we understand from hearing the debate that Biden was stating facts, and Trump was blowing a lot of feucht air. As I listened to the actual debate, I agree some of Biden’s responses exposed himself to a bit of criticism, but overall it was not as bad as we are being led to believe (and this is actually more discouraging than his fumbling of a couple responses).

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I listened to a Pod Save America episode that discussed some of the highlights of this post-debate rally. It sounds like Biden was in much better form than he was during the debate, and delivered the lines with more confidence and energy, but still could be doing a better job at emphasizing the importance of this election and talking about what really matters. Specifically, he’s continuing to focus too much on who Trump is rather than what he’s going to do. For example, Biden repeated his “he’s got the morals of an alley cat!” line from the debate, so apparently Biden thinks that’s a good line. But it isn’t super effective because

  1. Everyone, including the undecided voters, already knows that Trump is not the moral candidate. For a lot of people that’s apparently not a deal killer if they think he’ll run the economy better or whatever.
  2. What’s infinitely more important than his personal failings as a human being is the existential threat he poses to our Democracy. There are countless former Trump administration officials (including his own V.P.!) who think that it’s not safe to hand Trump power again. Maybe focus on that a little more?
  3. Why pick on unhoused cats? What makes them any more or less “moral” than the cats that are doted upon by loving owners? Seems pretty judgmental and bigoted, especially in the wake of that new Supreme Court ruling that criminalizes homeless.
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