If you’re a Democratic or independent voter who’s been suckered into the idea that Biden ending his campaign would do anything but ensure a second Trump term, it’s time to awaken from the fever dream.
This is the best post-debate analysis I have read. As calming as the Xanax I took last night to get to sleep! I hope with all my heart you are correct as last night’s performance was cringeworthy. I love Joe and he has done an incredible job against towering odds. Yes, I will vote for him and yes, I will donate to his campaign.
if the only thing I needed on Thursday night was Xanax, I'd be some kind of poster boy for the "strength of sobriety" or some such bullshit.
as a lifelong stammerer (disablingly so through high school), my take on that THING was that it was all about stammering. I lived through every strategy Biden was attempting and I was shaking with the same rage Biden must have been feeling when he kept realizing those strategies (the anti-stammering ones) were failing him, coupled with his outrage over the incredible shit TFF (The Fat Fuck...I CANNOT type his name without some hypertensive issues rearing their heads) was hosing us down with. when it developed last Monday there wouldn't be any fact checking, I had an inkling about how it would go. but TFF was lying prodigiously even by his own standards and I'm seeing very little in the so-called MSM about how crazy THAT was. add to that the fact that the two "moderators" refused to moderate, miserable, overpaid hacks that they are. CNN is dead to me.
you (Seth) have done us a great service by publishing the transcript of Biden's side of things because yes, they make perfect sense. but the stammering kept sabotaging his content. I've talked about this in many postings I've made and the only ones who understand what I'm saying are (naturally) people with a history of stuttering or stammering (Joe Biden is the latter, which is worse).
I've looked at the transcript (not Seth's version, whatever that is) and it confirmed what I heard in the debate. Biden was incompetent in attacking Trump and supporting himself. There are many examples, but let's go with this one: Biden pivoted from abortion to immigration, with no perceptible reason. And not just immigration, but an "illegal" immigrant who killed a young American woman. And he mentioned that Trump went to her funeral. In two minutes he changed the topic from abortion (democrats singular strongest issue) to immigration (Biden's most significant vulnerability). There aren't words for that level of incompetence.
If you value calming, good on you. I chose to remain panicked until we have this election under control. That will not happen with Biden. He need to drop out. And to save the party from civil war, he needs to retire. And to save the country, he need to do it now.
All so very true and accurate. Any pundit or analyst, that’s you Wagner and Axelrod calling for a new Dem candidate is out of their ever loving mind and dumb as dirt. They should be silenced. All of Trumps outrageous batshit crazy lies last night should be front and center, NOT BIDEN’s weak voice. Excellent points on this narrative all the way Seth.
Thank god for this analysis. The pundits were out of their minds last night. No idea how they landed so heavily on the "we need a new candidate" right out of the gate, rather than focusing on the non-stop lies of Trump.
The rightwing media and elected Repubs seeded that ground years ago. They message loudly and without letup 24-7. They have trained the whole American media to follow their lead or be beaten with the huge rightwing club. First: heads we win, tails the Dems lose, every story. Then they start the right is left, white is black and down is up until every American is sick of it. Started with sainted Ronnie and Faux has beaten us with it for all their years, with constant Russian help.
I did mean Nicole, right at the very beginning of the after-debate coverage. As I recall it, she was immediately focused on the texts and phone calls she'd been getting during the debate, then Joy joined her. I missed her yesterday so I'll look online. Thanks for the tip.
Probably because realistically this may be the last chance for Joe Biden to bow out gracefully & find a suitable replacement before the election. Maybe this performance was just a blip, but it could also be an indicator of the start of a major downward shift for Biden. People are rightfully panicking imo, since it's so important to beat Trump. If Biden were way up in the polls, I don't think people would be as worried, but he's not.
Has anyone mentioned that you are a political illiterate? Go wet the bed somewhere else so we don't have to smell it.
The "people who are rightly panicking" are the same dildos who panicked in 1992 over Bill Clinton's debate performance"loss" with Ross Perot, and then panicked over Obama's "loss" to Romney. They're the same drooling morons I couldn't stand when I worked around them in professional politics back in the day. They're the Dimocrat Caucus and are generally mental embarrassments - over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable FOOLS who mistakenly think they are "progressive."
Having a differing opinion from your own does not give you the right to insult, demean & just be plain rude. If you can't get your point across without calling people who have different ideas 'dildos', then maybe your point doesn't have as much inherent merit as you might think.
I saw that, but unfortunately it's not the best counterexample since he was using a teleprompter. He was great at SOTU, another event with a teleprompter. I don't understand why on Fri, Sat or Sun, he didn't do any interviews to talk about the debate or to make the case why he's the right guy for the job. I think his team has been hiding him from unscripted appearances for now obvious reasons, unfortunately.
Thank you Seth. I was reminding my fellow watchers, like you to get out of the weeds and get some perspective. 90 min. vs. an incredible record. And the man was ill. The traitorous lifelong liar golfs and Biden has the heavy weight of decisions of the free world on his shoulders. It comes down to who do you trust. Yes, Biden had a bad night but he will rally and he won’t betray his country to sell it out to the highest bidder. Eye on the ball. Look at what’s at stake here. Changing horses in mid-stream means we lose in November. No way can we allow that.
So far might be the best day of the year to send money to the Biden campaign. When I was asked the step aside question my response was it is July, the election is in November. You tell me what candidate can raise money, get a staff on ground in almost every state, buy ads, get on the ballot in every state, craft a hands down winning message, choose a running mate-who would that be? Absolutely idiotic. Almost as idiotic as electing a convicted felon, rapist, fraud, up for sale, dictator who placed 3 lying incompetent, political hacks on the Supreme Court.
The reason four months feels rushed is because our election cycles are ludicrously long. Realistically it is enough time to field a new candidate. I'm sure they have contingency plans in place in case Biden had become physically incapacitated in some way.
Biden's debate performance was disappointing, clearly. It changes nothing. His track record of success in this administration AND his long career in Washington make him the stronger candidate by far. No person (and certainly no politician) is perfect, but the questions raised before the 2020 election - would Joe Biden make a good president? - have been answered positively and decisively.
Yes! Thanks for this realistic as well as re-assuring analysis. One of your fans, Tomi T Ahonen (a debate coach, on Spoutible and Mastodon) listed the ways Biden won the debate based on substance:
"The CLIPS from this debate will damage Trump & GOP
These contests are never about substance. They’re always about perception. That perception is highly colored now by a very polarized electorate. People are watching to affirm their hope that the candidate is going to lead. When they see anything that affirms their fears, it tends to stick.
In the middle, you have a lot of 18-25s who are very angry with the Biden pick. What they saw last night confirms that anger. Absolutely, Joe Biden has done EVERYTHING right for America. Donald Trump is ABSOLUTELY a criminal, a carny, and he’s using the most important decision that Americans make as a dodge from accountability, and prison.
The swing voter isn’t moved by achievements, or macro economic trends. They vote on their own pocketbook and on emotion. You can get them on the first, but, for a lot of Gen Z, who blames us old folks for creating this political polarity nightmare, a lot of faith was lost last night.
The "debate" was clickbait for a failing media ecosystem that lost half their listeners/readers since 2020 and the intergalactic widgetmakers who own them demand "profitability" so the widgetmakers can sell them to the first rube who comes along anbd still thinks they have any value. There's a reason why the Cretin News Network is called the Cretin News Network.
What’s the polite way to address a Nazi, fascist, racist, rapist, criminal, insurrectionist traitor in a debate? “I’m sorry, I don’t speak white trash.”
I'd avoid that phrase which was originally used to refer to and denigrate people more often based on their socioeconomic status. I'd stick to your first instinct to say "don't speak fascist" or "crime boss mob speak" since it's pretty readily recognized that 45's evasive innuendo filled comments are mob speak.
Biden managed it incredibly well in 2019. That's what we were all hoping to see again this year. Re-watch one of the debates from then, and you will see that at one point he was more than capable of putting Trump in his place.
You made many excellent points, as always. Joe (I love that we are on a first name basis) had a bad night, but apparently a great rally in NC today. What does it say about our character if we throw Biden under the bus after one poor showing after 3.5 years of solid leadership? He’s old, we get it. But his mind is sharp and importantly, he is respected by allies and foes alike.
Yes, he still performs great...when he has a teleprompter. There's now an obvious reason as to why his team has been keeping him from unscripted appearances.
The Dims were peeing their pants in 1992 when Bill Clinton "lost" to Ross Perot, and in 2012 when Obama "lost" to Romney. They're the Professional Bedwetting Caucus. I've been wishing we'd kick them out for 50 years.
Much easier for Joe to read from a teleprompter, than to extemporaneously speak. I noticed that the center and center-left networks that previously haven’t put many of his speeches on television, EVER, are trying to do this now. This is an extreme analogy, for the effect of understanding why you don’t recover from such a disaster with a scripted rally. If there’s video of you robbing a bank, and a video the next day of you handing out balloons and candy at an orphanage, it still doesn’t excuse you from being a bank robber. People watch debates to get past their problems with this or that candidate. If the candidate affirms a weakness, that sticks in a way that you couldn’t get the skunk off of you, even with a tomato juice bath. As good as he can be, any day forward, the doubters got their affirmation last night. Everything about the swing votes in these modern elections is about perception, not facts.
From most things I've read, the doubters weren't even watching. Among those who were, focus groups seem to have found the doubters were just as turned off by 45's lies as by Biden's low energy and bafflement in the face of the deluge. I expect many can actually relate to trying to respond rationally to someone belligerently lying.
But Biden did respond rationally to Trump's lies in 2019. Watch the old debate videos on youtube & you'll see someone who was capable of putting Trump in his place. That man just is not there any more, as sad as that is.
An ex-Red voter said he would cast his vote for a dead Biden rather than the farting fat fibber (not that he called him that specifically). He knows that voting in the "despot for a day" will be a bloody long "day".
And pray that "day" is not hit by a deadly epidemic, war, climate change disasters or Coca Cola going bankrupt. NETO (New European Treaty Organization) will be too busy training up sharks and windmills as part of their Secret Weapons Program.
I always appreciate your perspective and analysis. Joe Biden feels like family. He’s the dad that wants his kids to do well. Trump is and has been a sadistic, psychotic, criminal his entire life. The greed of those supporting him is illegal. SCOTUS is shameful with few exceptions.
How is it Seth that so many sick people are in this country? You can bet they never fought for her, storming the beaches of Normandy or serving in Vietnam as Trump should have. He must never be president again. He would have it demolished and a gold castle built because he would plan to stay put.
This is the best post-debate analysis I have read. As calming as the Xanax I took last night to get to sleep! I hope with all my heart you are correct as last night’s performance was cringeworthy. I love Joe and he has done an incredible job against towering odds. Yes, I will vote for him and yes, I will donate to his campaign.
Exactly right.
if the only thing I needed on Thursday night was Xanax, I'd be some kind of poster boy for the "strength of sobriety" or some such bullshit.
as a lifelong stammerer (disablingly so through high school), my take on that THING was that it was all about stammering. I lived through every strategy Biden was attempting and I was shaking with the same rage Biden must have been feeling when he kept realizing those strategies (the anti-stammering ones) were failing him, coupled with his outrage over the incredible shit TFF (The Fat Fuck...I CANNOT type his name without some hypertensive issues rearing their heads) was hosing us down with. when it developed last Monday there wouldn't be any fact checking, I had an inkling about how it would go. but TFF was lying prodigiously even by his own standards and I'm seeing very little in the so-called MSM about how crazy THAT was. add to that the fact that the two "moderators" refused to moderate, miserable, overpaid hacks that they are. CNN is dead to me.
you (Seth) have done us a great service by publishing the transcript of Biden's side of things because yes, they make perfect sense. but the stammering kept sabotaging his content. I've talked about this in many postings I've made and the only ones who understand what I'm saying are (naturally) people with a history of stuttering or stammering (Joe Biden is the latter, which is worse).
I've looked at the transcript (not Seth's version, whatever that is) and it confirmed what I heard in the debate. Biden was incompetent in attacking Trump and supporting himself. There are many examples, but let's go with this one: Biden pivoted from abortion to immigration, with no perceptible reason. And not just immigration, but an "illegal" immigrant who killed a young American woman. And he mentioned that Trump went to her funeral. In two minutes he changed the topic from abortion (democrats singular strongest issue) to immigration (Biden's most significant vulnerability). There aren't words for that level of incompetence.
David, thanks so much for this perspective! I'm am sharing, now, as type this note to you.
If you value calming, good on you. I chose to remain panicked until we have this election under control. That will not happen with Biden. He need to drop out. And to save the party from civil war, he needs to retire. And to save the country, he need to do it now.
All so very true and accurate. Any pundit or analyst, that’s you Wagner and Axelrod calling for a new Dem candidate is out of their ever loving mind and dumb as dirt. They should be silenced. All of Trumps outrageous batshit crazy lies last night should be front and center, NOT BIDEN’s weak voice. Excellent points on this narrative all the way Seth.
I just canceled all my Suibstack subscriptions to the Substack Bedwetter's Caucus. I don't need to waste time and give money to idiots.
Thank god for this analysis. The pundits were out of their minds last night. No idea how they landed so heavily on the "we need a new candidate" right out of the gate, rather than focusing on the non-stop lies of Trump.
The rightwing media and elected Repubs seeded that ground years ago. They message loudly and without letup 24-7. They have trained the whole American media to follow their lead or be beaten with the huge rightwing club. First: heads we win, tails the Dems lose, every story. Then they start the right is left, white is black and down is up until every American is sick of it. Started with sainted Ronnie and Faux has beaten us with it for all their years, with constant Russian help.
Sadly, I was talking about MSNBC, The New Republic, and other lefty media.
I'm still subscribing to Rachel, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O'Donnell and The Weekend for Michael Steele. Wagner got dropped.
I also canceled my TNR and TAP subscriptions finally.
Yes. The worst offenders on MSNBC were Wallace and Reid.
Nicole was solid Thursday and even moreso yesterday. Are you sure you don't mean Wagner?
I did mean Nicole, right at the very beginning of the after-debate coverage. As I recall it, she was immediately focused on the texts and phone calls she'd been getting during the debate, then Joy joined her. I missed her yesterday so I'll look online. Thanks for the tip.
Pundit: an over-educated,. under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable moron who's a legend in his own mind.
I can tell you from experience as a "professional Democrat,"that the above definition also applies to "Democratic Strategist".
Probably because realistically this may be the last chance for Joe Biden to bow out gracefully & find a suitable replacement before the election. Maybe this performance was just a blip, but it could also be an indicator of the start of a major downward shift for Biden. People are rightfully panicking imo, since it's so important to beat Trump. If Biden were way up in the polls, I don't think people would be as worried, but he's not.
Has anyone mentioned that you are a political illiterate? Go wet the bed somewhere else so we don't have to smell it.
The "people who are rightly panicking" are the same dildos who panicked in 1992 over Bill Clinton's debate performance"loss" with Ross Perot, and then panicked over Obama's "loss" to Romney. They're the same drooling morons I couldn't stand when I worked around them in professional politics back in the day. They're the Dimocrat Caucus and are generally mental embarrassments - over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable FOOLS who mistakenly think they are "progressive."
Having a differing opinion from your own does not give you the right to insult, demean & just be plain rude. If you can't get your point across without calling people who have different ideas 'dildos', then maybe your point doesn't have as much inherent merit as you might think.
That's a strong point. I just can't see coming up with a winner by the August convention. For anyone concerned about his performance, watch this from today in North Carolina: https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxYFdN8trwIL_Tn0HFRNulRkRX_AqRBrMZ
Watch his Friday speeches
I saw that, but unfortunately it's not the best counterexample since he was using a teleprompter. He was great at SOTU, another event with a teleprompter. I don't understand why on Fri, Sat or Sun, he didn't do any interviews to talk about the debate or to make the case why he's the right guy for the job. I think his team has been hiding him from unscripted appearances for now obvious reasons, unfortunately.
Yes!
Thank you Seth. I was reminding my fellow watchers, like you to get out of the weeds and get some perspective. 90 min. vs. an incredible record. And the man was ill. The traitorous lifelong liar golfs and Biden has the heavy weight of decisions of the free world on his shoulders. It comes down to who do you trust. Yes, Biden had a bad night but he will rally and he won’t betray his country to sell it out to the highest bidder. Eye on the ball. Look at what’s at stake here. Changing horses in mid-stream means we lose in November. No way can we allow that.
So far might be the best day of the year to send money to the Biden campaign. When I was asked the step aside question my response was it is July, the election is in November. You tell me what candidate can raise money, get a staff on ground in almost every state, buy ads, get on the ballot in every state, craft a hands down winning message, choose a running mate-who would that be? Absolutely idiotic. Almost as idiotic as electing a convicted felon, rapist, fraud, up for sale, dictator who placed 3 lying incompetent, political hacks on the Supreme Court.
Yes, I recommended that to my readers and then followed my own advice.
The reason four months feels rushed is because our election cycles are ludicrously long. Realistically it is enough time to field a new candidate. I'm sure they have contingency plans in place in case Biden had become physically incapacitated in some way.
Biden's debate performance was disappointing, clearly. It changes nothing. His track record of success in this administration AND his long career in Washington make him the stronger candidate by far. No person (and certainly no politician) is perfect, but the questions raised before the 2020 election - would Joe Biden make a good president? - have been answered positively and decisively.
Yes! Thanks for this realistic as well as re-assuring analysis. One of your fans, Tomi T Ahonen (a debate coach, on Spoutible and Mastodon) listed the ways Biden won the debate based on substance:
"The CLIPS from this debate will damage Trump & GOP
- Roe
- taxes
- NATO
- Jan 6
and most of all, CLIMATE
These debate clips will win votes"
These contests are never about substance. They’re always about perception. That perception is highly colored now by a very polarized electorate. People are watching to affirm their hope that the candidate is going to lead. When they see anything that affirms their fears, it tends to stick.
In the middle, you have a lot of 18-25s who are very angry with the Biden pick. What they saw last night confirms that anger. Absolutely, Joe Biden has done EVERYTHING right for America. Donald Trump is ABSOLUTELY a criminal, a carny, and he’s using the most important decision that Americans make as a dodge from accountability, and prison.
The swing voter isn’t moved by achievements, or macro economic trends. They vote on their own pocketbook and on emotion. You can get them on the first, but, for a lot of Gen Z, who blames us old folks for creating this political polarity nightmare, a lot of faith was lost last night.
The "debate" was clickbait for a failing media ecosystem that lost half their listeners/readers since 2020 and the intergalactic widgetmakers who own them demand "profitability" so the widgetmakers can sell them to the first rube who comes along anbd still thinks they have any value. There's a reason why the Cretin News Network is called the Cretin News Network.
Sensible and and a needed sense of perspective. Thanks Seth.
What’s the polite way to address a Nazi, fascist, racist, rapist, criminal, insurrectionist traitor in a debate? “I’m sorry, I don’t speak white trash.”
Just call it "Trump".
The Confederates are always upset that we tell them to speak English so we can understand them.
I'd avoid that phrase which was originally used to refer to and denigrate people more often based on their socioeconomic status. I'd stick to your first instinct to say "don't speak fascist" or "crime boss mob speak" since it's pretty readily recognized that 45's evasive innuendo filled comments are mob speak.
Biden managed it incredibly well in 2019. That's what we were all hoping to see again this year. Re-watch one of the debates from then, and you will see that at one point he was more than capable of putting Trump in his place.
You made many excellent points, as always. Joe (I love that we are on a first name basis) had a bad night, but apparently a great rally in NC today. What does it say about our character if we throw Biden under the bus after one poor showing after 3.5 years of solid leadership? He’s old, we get it. But his mind is sharp and importantly, he is respected by allies and foes alike.
Speaking of that rally, I swear Joe looked his regular self 100%.
Yes, he still performs great...when he has a teleprompter. There's now an obvious reason as to why his team has been keeping him from unscripted appearances.
The Dims were peeing their pants in 1992 when Bill Clinton "lost" to Ross Perot, and in 2012 when Obama "lost" to Romney. They're the Professional Bedwetting Caucus. I've been wishing we'd kick them out for 50 years.
Much easier for Joe to read from a teleprompter, than to extemporaneously speak. I noticed that the center and center-left networks that previously haven’t put many of his speeches on television, EVER, are trying to do this now. This is an extreme analogy, for the effect of understanding why you don’t recover from such a disaster with a scripted rally. If there’s video of you robbing a bank, and a video the next day of you handing out balloons and candy at an orphanage, it still doesn’t excuse you from being a bank robber. People watch debates to get past their problems with this or that candidate. If the candidate affirms a weakness, that sticks in a way that you couldn’t get the skunk off of you, even with a tomato juice bath. As good as he can be, any day forward, the doubters got their affirmation last night. Everything about the swing votes in these modern elections is about perception, not facts.
The doubters need to go stick their heads back up their asses where they normally keep them.
From most things I've read, the doubters weren't even watching. Among those who were, focus groups seem to have found the doubters were just as turned off by 45's lies as by Biden's low energy and bafflement in the face of the deluge. I expect many can actually relate to trying to respond rationally to someone belligerently lying.
But Biden did respond rationally to Trump's lies in 2019. Watch the old debate videos on youtube & you'll see someone who was capable of putting Trump in his place. That man just is not there any more, as sad as that is.
👍👍👍 Thank you! It has to be Joe Biden.
No worries here Seth. I just made my contributions monthly for President Biden. I want to see him at the end of this campaign victorious.
An ex-Red voter said he would cast his vote for a dead Biden rather than the farting fat fibber (not that he called him that specifically). He knows that voting in the "despot for a day" will be a bloody long "day".
And pray that "day" is not hit by a deadly epidemic, war, climate change disasters or Coca Cola going bankrupt. NETO (New European Treaty Organization) will be too busy training up sharks and windmills as part of their Secret Weapons Program.
Very well stated. And the stay out of the news superpower is a great phrase.
The alleycat fuhrer goosesteps on.
You mean Hair Furor, El Jefe Del Mar A Lardo?
not MAGA-Lardo?
That's good too.
I always appreciate your perspective and analysis. Joe Biden feels like family. He’s the dad that wants his kids to do well. Trump is and has been a sadistic, psychotic, criminal his entire life. The greed of those supporting him is illegal. SCOTUS is shameful with few exceptions.
How is it Seth that so many sick people are in this country? You can bet they never fought for her, storming the beaches of Normandy or serving in Vietnam as Trump should have. He must never be president again. He would have it demolished and a gold castle built because he would plan to stay put.