I don’t know the details for how far ahead all the rules were decided. I would have assumed months but clearly not.

A BIG news story yesterday was that republicans were angry that there would be live fact checking during the debate. So CNN got rid of that literally the afternoon of the debate. That makes a massive difference because it means that Biden now needed to actively refute the increasingly blatant lies in addition to getting his talking points across.

And the format always went against Biden. His stutter and aphasia do not mix well with short 3 minute responses. With proper debate prep and a focus on talking points, he is mostly good. We had a few moments but even when he was at his most feeble sounding he was fine. But once he had to respond to things like “you are a manchurian candidate” and “you are basically a Palestinian but a bad one”? Then it becomes “okay, call this prick the c-word. Now I need to also cite this fact that is part of my border security answer. And then I need to talk about… jesus christ are we actually talking about global warming right now?”

And that fucked Biden. Because that is not something a POTUS needs to be able to handle. If Kim Jong Un started talking like that during a meeting… we might literally invade North Korea. Almost all meaningful conversation between world leaders is basically heavily scripted speeches or closed door conversations where people acknowledge others are human.

But also? CNN didn’t even follow their own format. They repeatedly unmuted candidates (mostly trump but a few times Biden) so they could get a juicy comeback in.

I mean… for anything but the primaries (so basically candidate selection), there is zero benefit to publicizing that. NOBODY will benefit from “Yes, I agree that UBI and climate change are essential to focus on but we need to get this bill through before all of our airports collapse. We’ll focus on that later” being a public discussion.

Also… if people ARE interested in those discussions? Work with your local party. You would be shocked at how many fairly low level organizers end up getting on the various calls related to defining a platform.

Like, the internet loves to paint the DNC as this evil shadow organization (mostly for reasons dating back to 2015/16…). And there is definitely a lot of politicking between the politicians (gasp!). But if you put in the time you would be shocked how much of a voice “community organizers” have if they have even basic social skills.

If it were June of 2023? This would go to the primaries.

It is June of 2024. There is no time for a vote. So all having shouting matches and screaming about how Biden is unelectable on camera does is fuck the party as a whole. See: 2016

Looks at instance Yup, that explains it

If your only goal is accelerationism with the misguided view that you’ll benefit from the violent revolution: Go back to playing Call of Duty and let the adults discuss politics.

I have absolutely zero issues with lefties. Hell, I am one.

I do have an issue with the tankie dumbfucks who will STILL talk about “Genocide Joe” when we have video evidence of trump saying he outright wants the Palestinians eradicated and thinks Biden is too soft on them.

But also: The average person didn’t watch that debate. Or they ducked out in horror when Biden came out sounding like death. They are going to be listening to what influencers say. Some of those influencers are people with incredibly smart teams behind them who focus on the issues and social justice (e.g. John Oliver). Others literally go to the bathroom while playing the work of others and then shit on said work while claiming to be a leftist.

And others still are “that friend who is really political” who is mostly parroting what other influencers have said.

Certain outsiders aside, Democrats are really good about getting their shit together behind closed doors.

So I think the convention will be pretty boring. The closed room meetings and email chains are batshit insane and someone is going to make bank on a tell-all book when they leak that… assuming literacy is not illegal by that point.

That said: We can’t get rid of Biden. He can’t “run away” from trump and we still had a pretty good four years all points considered. But we need to replace Kamala. Even ignoring that significant parts of the country hate her because she is brown, asian, and a woman, she is also a cop and has done nothing to really build her profile.

So make up an excuse for Kamala to need to step aside and get someone more charismatic as the VP. Basically what the republicans tried with mccain (ugh) and palin (ugh!). This immediately makes people a lot more comfortable with “what if Biden dies?” but also builds up a candidate for 2028.

I guess…

Biden fucked up. But I don’t think this really changes anything.

Nobody is voting for Biden because we like him. We are voting for him because we give a shit about human rights and democracy. And democrats generally are good at actually listening to what is being said because… we want things.

republicans hate biden and are just happy they heard that brown people are killing and raping everyone. Nothing changed there

What Biden needed to do was win over the dumbass moderate/“undecided” voters. Which… is not talking points or policy. It is strongman bullshit. And that… is going to almost be entirely up to The Internet. Do we focus on Biden stuttering and having aphasia that he has had for decades? Or do we focus on trump blatantly lying and still talking about asking Nancy Pelosi to lead an insurrection for him?

John Oliver and the rest of the late night hosts are going to be working overtime to remind the country that having a deranged fascist in charge is bad. The Hasans of the world are going to keep talking about “Genocide Joe” because they are useful idiots, at best. But… I don’t know beyond that.’

That said, I do think about the questionably accurate story that nixon (ugh) won his debate against kennedy (lesser ugh) among radio versus television listeners.

Biden mostly won in terms of text. He lost in terms of audio. But… people live on twitter and social media. How many people are going to be watching clips versus reading excerpts and tweets?

Trump is not memorizing answers. He is just ignoring questions and giving rally speeches.

Also, Biden has had a stutter for decades. It doesn’t actually matter from a leadership standpoint. Just from a standing next to a school yard bully one

Still a clip the Internet can run with.

But yeah…

“president xi of China” versus “Putin”.

Orange fuck has a new sugar daddy and he loves him some honey

Oh shit. The height and weight comment was amazing.

He kept talking. The moderators let him finish thoughts. Biden shut up when he was told.

trump also did a weird walk back early on where he said other countries were bad too.

Republicans project endlessly. Xinnie The Pooh bought a Republican

“he is lying. He hurt the middle class. All of them want to vote for me”

There is no win here. Anyone with a brain knows this is a shit show. The rest just want a strong man fascist.

Right wing fascists are taking hold around the world. And the countries holding out are juicy targets for a military needing a win

His message is blatant lies and ignoring the prompt.

Biden is debating. trump is giving an unhinged speech.

Yeah. It is a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, replacing her is acknowledging Biden administration failed. On the other hand, she is a brown she.

Republicans threw a shitfit and it got cancelled.

It is about not forcing Biden to spend half of each response regarding to blatant lies like… Biden being pro Palestine.

Good news. Biden might be getting angry enough to go super Saiyan. Won’t be good for the talking points but those are out the window with the endless lies anyway.