Will there be an historically high audience for tonight’s first (and quite probably only) presidential debate? I would say that’s a safe bet. Any other safe bets one could make? That Donald Trump will make himself the victim and already is doing so, is beyond dispute. Rick Wilson said he toyed with the idea of creating a drinking game for tonight’s worldwide soiree but decided not to do so at the last minute so as to prevent a spate of deaths from alcohol poisoning. Rick did provide us with some non-toxic guidance, however.
But Trump isn’t feeling the confidence and swagger he usually sells.
He knows Biden beat him twice before. Trump knows Biden has been prepping while he’s been golfing. He regrets the format and the lack of an audience. None of this feels right to Team Trump, which is why the teased withdrawing from the debate earlier this week and why his senior aides are very quietly working to lower expectations.
His social media followers are making “rigged debate” tweets at a ferocious clip this morning. Everyone in their orbit seems eager to talk about the VP contest…”Oh, yeah, the debate. Biden’s on drugs. Whatever.”
The headlines and assertions in the MAGA media betray a certain degree of nervous resignation:
The increasingly Rupert-y Wall Street Journal opined: “Even with the moderators in Biden’s corner, the president will have a hard time with the questioning.”
Ben Shapiro weighed in: CNN’s Debate Moderators: Don’t Expect Fairness
The lesser lights of the MAGA media crazy train also bleated their wrongpinions:
Donald Trump’s Handicap Match: Liberal media won’t let this be a fair fight.
Watch Out for Shenanigans From CNN Debate Moderators Tapper and Bash!
Three Hoaxes To Watch for In Thursday Night’s Debate
That’s just a very superficial collection of their pre-gaming.
For the debate tonight, not only for the spin before and after, but for every Trump utterance on stage, remember the MAGA Debate Rules below. You will hear a thousand ways to contextualize every one of Trump’s assertions. I’ve written a set of rules that I believe give you a chance to know what he really means, no matter what he says:
MAGA DEBATE RULES
- Every accusation is a confession.
- Every denial is a full confession of guilt.
- Every claim of evil is projection.
- Every boast of strength is an admission of failure.
- Every fact is subject to Trump’s sole interpretation.
- Every law is a conspiracy against Trump.
- Every anecdote is pure fiction.
- Every casual cruelty and crazed conspiracy leads deeper into more cruelty and conspiracy.
- Every word is a lie, every lie is a promise of betrayal.
- Every person or group Trump claims to stand for, he loathes.
- Finally, Everything Trump Touches Dies.
A few days ago Charlie Sykes ranted about the debate and that’s worth taking a look at.
The debate will be a shitshow
Roger Ailes explained his “orchestra pit theory of politics.” to Judy Woodruff back in 1988:
Roger Ailes: Let’s face it, there are three things that the media are interested in: pictures, mistakes and attacks. That’s the one sure way of getting coverage. You try to avoid as many mistakes as you can. You try to give them as many pictures as you can. And if you need coverage, you attack, and you will get coverage.
It’s my orchestra pit theory of politics. You have two guys on stage and one guy says, “I have a solution to the Middle East problem,” and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news.
“One thing you don’t want to do is get your head up too far on some new vision for America because then the next thing that happens is the media runs over to the Republican side and says, “Tell me why you think this is an idiotic idea.”
Judy Woodruff: So you’re saying the notion of the candidate saying, “I want to run for President because I want to do something for this country,” is crazy.
Roger Ailes: Suicide.
**
And here we are in 2024, as Joe Biden prepares to debate Donald Trump, again.
Nota bene: This week’s debate won’t be a Lincoln-Douglas debate; or even a Kennedy-Nixon. It will be more like watching 90 minutes of a howler monkey flinging its shit around the room.
I’m going to keep an eye on the personal insults, which I expect to be coming hot and heavy from Trump because he’s got nothing of substance to say, and I think that fact checking will be crucial. If the fact checkers can possibly keep up. But whatever you do, enjoy what there is of this spectacle because you very likely will not see a second debate. This is it, one and done.
We are in the End Days Of Trump (or of America, it’s going to be one or the other) and tonight will be a key part of that.
[A tip of the hat to our fellow Zoomer Linda Mendoz for finding the graphic atop this piece.]
I think I’ll wait for the highlight reel.
Too much Trump has been known to cause brain damage.
The entire debate might be a highlight reel. This won’t be a debate like most others, with policy differences highlighted. This is a war of personalities. Biden’s legitimately a politician, Trump’s a fraud at everything he’s ever done — except maybe The Apprentice, because that was about creating an illusion.
I can see why Wilson suggested making the debate into a drinking game. There is no way I could listen the poo-flinger for the entirety. I cannot bear to hear him utter…anything really. Still, I’m not risking a headache just to watch the shit show. I”ll read about it tomorrow.
Hope your brain doesn’t decide to exit your head through your nostrils so it can escape what you’re going to put it through Ursula. lol
Maybe they put the commercial breaks in so humpty dumpty can change his Depends. Hopefully the independents will tune in. We already know the needle of the cult is broken and can’t be moved no matter if Trump shits himself, passes out and falls down. In Monty Python’s Life of Brian the mob kept insisting he was the Savior no matter what he said or did. When he denied it they said only the true savior would deny his divinity. Frustrated, he finally said alright I am the savior. The mob erupted with hosannas for the savior. That’s what we’re dealing with…mindless morons. Trump is the king of that group.
Sorry-assed kingdom.