Thoughts on the coming Presidential debates
Trump has been calling for debates since March . Clueless Joe did not respond until yesterday .There is only one reason for this shift .His campaign is risking him leaving the safety of the basement because he is desperate to change the narrative . He masked it with bravado .
(1) Joe Biden on X: "Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. https://t.co/AkPmvs2q4u" / X (twitter.com)
Poll after poll shows that he is losing in key swing states The compliant press is having a hard time defending his record and may be ready to throw him under the bus.
Trump still has a 'never Trump' problem in the GOP . Tuesday's primaries showed there is still a significant part of the GOP that is willing to jump ship or be no shows in November .(Nikki got 31% in Maryland ;18% in Nebraska ;9.5% in WV) . Maybe had he participated in the GOP debates he could've put any GOP opposition away.
Both Trump and Joe want the exclude the 3rd party candidates in any debate they participate in .So they are going to skip the Commission on Presidential Debates format . They both realize that the Commission's format doesn't work ;especially given the reality that early voting is here to stay. The Commission's debates were scheduled in the Fall ;long after early voting begins and people have made up their mind .
The Commission has done a poor job in controlling the debaters ;the partisan audience in attendance, and the moderators and both candidates know it.
I'm surprised Trump proposed a CNN and ABC moderated debate and shocked he would agree to allowing them the authority to cut off his mike.
It is not clear yet what the rules are so I don't know how that will work . Joe's camp believe that Trump's uncontrollable and that comes will come out clear in debates to their advantage .
Trump believes that Clueless Joe cannot stay on script and will likely make a major error . They may give Joe that special juice that keeps him awake past bed time; but he also appears as if he has been dipping into Hunter's stash when that happens .
Trump wants more debates than 2 ;and to have at least one in a large gathering . That works to his strengths and Joe will likely decline that .
My preference would be to have a series of debates in the Lincoln-Douglas format .
(A single topic is debated One debater argues the affirmative side and one debater argues the negative side.)
But I fear Americans in the 21st century do not have the attention span and would quickly lose interest .