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Completely agree with this. I watched the whole thing and just don't understant the argument that Biden won on substance. Over the course of the debate, Trump made a couple things clear about his 'platform', whether you believe he can get it done or not aside:
Biden on the other hand closed with an "everything is great America is great" statement with a dash of 'there's work to be done'. Sure it's always hard for the incumbant to thread the needle of bringing improvement without admiting your first term has been lacking. But just so. Shit sucks now, and Biden didn't offer much about how it would improve under a second term.
Biden dug in hardest as his strongest theme that Trump is a liar, but 1. That's irrespective to Trump's assessment of the issues to be addressed, vs Biden's lack thereof. and 2. Biden went hard on two debunked hoaxes: Fine People, and Suckers and Losers. (He also made passing references to other debunked hoaxes like injecting bleach). This alone, should have undermined his ability to portray himself as an arbiter of 'truth and lies' by any honest critic.
In other areas, Biden's arguments were just contextually irrelevant, despite the fact that he spoke with more 'detail'. The biggest example that comes to mind is the abortion exchange. After Trump made it clear that he personally beleived in exceptions that include rape and incest, but beleived that the states should decide democratically, Biden went on and on about different examples of rape and incest. Sure he was exhaustive in the different relatives that could rape a woman, but what counterpoint was it making to Trump? Trump already pre-agreed that those are indeed scenarios he believes in allowing abortions for.
This is why I made my original post about "what people heard" rather than the direct what-they-said. Your bullet points almost exactly reflect what people heard. With one exception: Voters who did watch the debate almost universally notice, and are annoyed, when candidates do not answer questions. Trump noticeably dodged at least three questions. Whether this matters long-term is up for debate, but the answer is probably not to a big degree. Which is why I expect the current (swing-voter) narrative/impression for the next two months to be about how Trump is directionally correct even if he's light on details and a bit mean, but at least he's not in charge of a failing economy and a failing intellect. People still dislike Trump, so the situation can still change, but he currently has a significant advantage. Even as a lean-left moderate, who hates Trump, I still came away from the debate feeling better, not worse, about a Trump presidency again, which is not "supposed to" happen.
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Yep agreed. I think people are confusing high level policy statements (we will spend 50b on x) as policy when it was untethered from any over arching goals etc.
And I actually think while Trunp exaggerated more he was directionally true most of the time while Biden lied and lied frequently.
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Worse yet Biden launched into talking about illegal aliens raping and killing a young girl in response to softball abortion question. Pivoting away from his strongest position to Trump's strongest position. And then followed that up with an exhaustive list of family members who could rape you, including step-family members and your sister. So anyways illegals raping and killing children isn't so bad in comparison to other rapes and, oh yeah, keep abortion legal.
I'm paraphrasing, but it was a roller coaster of an answer.
On at least three different occasions, Biden responded to a predicted Trump attack before it even happened, but still framed it exactly as if it had. Which I think speaks to both piss-poor debate prep, plus some diminished mental nimbleness. The whole debate I was kind of thinking, "what if a real person were up there instead of an old guy?" That's really not what you want a viewer to be thinking, ever, that they could do better.
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A large body of online internet documentary research suggests that this a common source of sexual partnerships.
Stay strapped or get clapped.
And for God's sake don't get stuck in the washing machine door when your step brother's around.
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