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Notes -
I think the idea is this:
Imagine if Biden been a bit more together, and had successfully given a line about, say, "we spent 300 million more on Medicare". Realistically, that number would almost certainly have been Sir-Humphrey'd to death. 100 million of it would turn out to be money that they were already spending, classified in a way to allow it to be used for the factoid. Say, reclassifying 'elderly medical support' as 'medicare assist for the elderly'. Another 100 million would be money that hadn't actually been spent yet, but had been put aside on the budget and probably would be spent this year unless it got used for something else instead.
We, and the partisan media, would get to work on this. Some people will say that it's all bollocks and he hasn't done anything. Other people would say that no, the money is there and it's being spent. And in reality, very little new information would have got through. Biden is spending a bit more on Medicare, probably.
So I believe that @SlowBoy's argument is that paying attention to what is actually said in debates (or elections) is a fool's errand. Everyone knows that the promises will not be carried out, that the numbers will be carefully constructed houses of cards, etc. All the promises, the statistics, are intended to produce a vibe. The real message that Biden is trying to convey is "Biden cares about medicare. Biden strong."
According to this argument, people paying attention to what is said, rather than the vibes and the character that is revealed, are paying attention to the wrong thing. The debate is supposed to be a vibes-based slugfest.
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