An actual debate might be very useful especially this year as we have been subjected to endless handwringing over Biden's age while ignoring Trump's obvious decline. Imagine those two face to face challenging each other's positions on various issues, or Biden challenging Trump to defend not only his disastrous first term but his fascistic plans for a second. But having the two stand behind podiums fielding questions from "journalists" responding with their prepared talking points is useless.
Gaffes this year are the focus of the election. Biden is senile - a refrain used daily by Republicans. Since the press tends to ignore Trump's gaffes (Trump just being Trump), I do think an unscripted debate might shake up the narrative and amplify the SOTU competence of Biden.
Your thoughts made me think of the late great Jim Lehrer’s book “The Last Debate”. It involves a set of journalists serving as moderators who manage to get a Trump-like candidate to explode in profanities on national television. It’s a good book. It wrestles with the question of journalistic responsibility when a candidate presents a real danger to democracy.
Trump can’t stay awake at his trial; he’d be a complete mess in a debate. I don’t care if he says he wants to debate; he won’t. Personally I don’t think there’d be any value in these particular two candidates debating—what don’t we know about them? The only value would be to see the advanced state of Trump’s mental and emotional deterioration, but pretty much everyone already knows that too.
Interesting. But did this year's Republican debates successfully flush out the best of the Trump alternatives? They didn't change the bottom line--he's still the nominee--but if your answer is yes, then the debates weren't totally dysfunctional, even in their admittedly weak format.
An actual debate might be very useful especially this year as we have been subjected to endless handwringing over Biden's age while ignoring Trump's obvious decline. Imagine those two face to face challenging each other's positions on various issues, or Biden challenging Trump to defend not only his disastrous first term but his fascistic plans for a second. But having the two stand behind podiums fielding questions from "journalists" responding with their prepared talking points is useless.
Gaffes this year are the focus of the election. Biden is senile - a refrain used daily by Republicans. Since the press tends to ignore Trump's gaffes (Trump just being Trump), I do think an unscripted debate might shake up the narrative and amplify the SOTU competence of Biden.
Your thoughts made me think of the late great Jim Lehrer’s book “The Last Debate”. It involves a set of journalists serving as moderators who manage to get a Trump-like candidate to explode in profanities on national television. It’s a good book. It wrestles with the question of journalistic responsibility when a candidate presents a real danger to democracy.
Trump can’t stay awake at his trial; he’d be a complete mess in a debate. I don’t care if he says he wants to debate; he won’t. Personally I don’t think there’d be any value in these particular two candidates debating—what don’t we know about them? The only value would be to see the advanced state of Trump’s mental and emotional deterioration, but pretty much everyone already knows that too.
Interesting. But did this year's Republican debates successfully flush out the best of the Trump alternatives? They didn't change the bottom line--he's still the nominee--but if your answer is yes, then the debates weren't totally dysfunctional, even in their admittedly weak format.