(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The media called it a "debate." I call it a Trump publicity stunt. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-28 Yes, a lot of us on Daily Kos are freaking out about last night's presidential debate. True, President Biden's performance was not all that great. The corporate media is having a field day blasting him over it (as is Vladimir Putin and his troll farms). I watched the debate on MSNBC from start to finish, and also took the time to read the transcript on CNN's website. It is not what the media is cracking it up to be. I believe their plan all along, even before the debate began, was to use it to dig up more dirt against Biden while at the same time letting Donald Trump have a free pass on everything. The whole intention was to give Trump more publicity and to let him have the attention he craves. Beneath all the media spin, I saw something entirely different. Here is what I observed. Even though Biden talked quite fast and occasionally stumbled, misspoke, and blanked out, Trump often did something in his speech to balance the scales out. Trump's performance, in all honesty, was not much better. When he talked, he was often repetitive and kept saying the same things over and over again. He continuously stumbled, paused, and blanked out himself. The way that he said some words ("harrable" was a favorite of his) was laughable. Oh, and yes, he lied through his teeth the entire time! Many of the questions/topics that CNN and the moderators picked had a right-wing bias. The questions were worded that way. Plus, they focused mainly on issues like the economy and inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the candidates’ ages. Literally, issues designed to attempt to make Biden in particular look bad. Trump often dodged questions from the moderators. For instance, when asked about climate change and childcare, he immediately switched the topic and started talking about something else. In other words, he offered no solutions and had no real plan. Trump may have won on performance, but Biden clearly won on the issues. When Biden was asked by the moderators, he almost always stayed on track, tried to focus on his accomplishments, and attempted to discuss how he can fix our nation's problems (e.g., making the rich pay their fair share and restoring Roe v. Wade). The issues are what matter most, not communication skills. (By the way, Biden seemed quite strong and energetic to me despite being sick.) Here are a few other key points to keep in mind. A few things that I remember darn well. President George W. Bush's performance at the first presidential debate of 2004 was abysmal. He stuttered and paused a lot, his speech was garbled, and his sentences were broken. BUT, he still won re-election that year. President Barack Obama's performance at the first presidential debate of 2012 was lackluster. BUT, he still won re-election that year. Trump was a total bully and child at the first presidential debate of 2020 (we all remember this one). All he did was basically heckle Joe Biden the entire time. Despite his behavior resembling that of a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, he still came frighteningly close to winning another term that year. He took more than 74 million votes, about 11 million more than in 2016 and only seven million less than Biden. It was a squeaker. History seems to show that a bad first presidential debate for an incumbent president does little if anything to sway votes away from them in an election. In all honesty, presidential debates are nothing more than media-driven political theater. They have been that way for at least 20 years now. It is the exact same garbage almost every single time; the same issues, almost the exact same questions, more right-wing media bias, and just another opportunity for two adults (so it seems) to fling mud at each other in front of a national television camera. I can guarantee you that the debate last night did almost nothing to change any votes, and that everyone's minds were already made up well in advance. Here is something else to think about: do you seriously believe that Democratic and Independent voters who were committed to Biden before last night yet disapproved of his performance at last night's debate are going to want to suddenly switch over and support a serial sociopathic liar and 34-time convicted felon? Just because they did not like Biden's lackluster communication? Come on. I firmly believe that the vast majority of voters in our country have more common sense than that. Here is an aside. Does anyone remember the 2016 Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders? Even though I am not the biggest fan of Bernie, I still to this day cannot get over how the corporate media treated him that year. To say that they were unfair to him is an understatement. They tore him apart at every turn. I did not have sympathy for the third-party candidates Jill Stein or Gary Johnson either, but the media cut them to pieces as well. The media only pretended to be pro-Hillary until they blasted her about her alleged "email scandal" and made it a top news headline just weeks before the election, and that was when they showed their true colors as being pro-Trump. Right now, I think the media is doing to Joe Biden exactly what they did to Sanders, Stein, and Johnson eight years ago. I am not worried about it. I do not think a lot of people are taking the media's twisting of the facts too seriously right now. Besides, we are still just over four months away from the election, and President Biden has plenty of time to rebound. Barack Obama did it, and Joe Biden can too. I have faith in him, and everybody else should as well. Give it just two to three weeks and I can almost bet you that this media publicity stunt will be completely faded from public memory. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/28/2249505/-The-media-called-it-a-debate-I-call-it-a-Trump-publicity-stunt?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/