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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

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With the parties' microphone being muted while the opponent is speaking, that prevents Trump from shooting his mouth off too much, and it prevents Kamala getting her true girlboss moment where she shuts down the misogynist orange man.

If we get the relatively restrained Trump from the first Biden debate (feels forever ago, honestly!) I think he makes it out okay.

I can't think of a single Trump debate moment that actually hurt his standing, there may be a couple but he's a known quantity. Unless someone else takes a shot at him during the debate it won't be anything remarkable.

I don't see how Kamala makes it through the entire thing without at least one 'gaffe' and it is possible her normal demeanor, once its on full display for an extended period of time, just grates on everyone.

I'd argue that Kamala has the really hard job to make herself look both competent and collected, and if she doesn't land a single solid blow on Trump she loses by default.

I think there is potential that Kamala has a complete cackling brain fart moment where she spews a genuinely absurd answer to a question she didn't anticipate. This will be somewhat relevant but will depend on whether its 'memeable' or not, I'd guess.

Mainstream coverage of the debate will declare she dominated the entire time in any case.

I can't think of a single Trump debate moment that actually hurt his standing, there may be a couple but he's a known quantity. Unless someone else takes a shot at him during the debate it won't be anything remarkable.

His first debate in 2020 was very bad. Not as bad as Biden's recent debate, but worse than pretty much all others in living memory.

I think you are generally unfair to Trump but this is spot on. Dude couldn’t shut up and saved Biden numerous times.