Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Books are my comfort food!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: The Debate Schedule

Open Thread: The Debate Schedule

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hillary its a bird its a plane deering

(John Deering via GoComics.com)
.

presidential debate schedule 2016

(click to further embiggen)

For one reason or another, I haven’t seen the dates/places chosen for the upcoming debates discussed. Anyone want to speculate on why these particular sites might’ve seemed desirable?

(I’m still not sure Trump won’t lose it during the first debate and storm off the stage… assuming he even shows up.)

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    OH, VA, MO, and NV? Those were chose because they’re swing states, I’m sure. All about the ratings!

  2. 2.

    khead

    Pokemon Go death pool betting odds:

    Heart attack because you haven’t exercised in forever before playing 30/1.
    Pokemon swatting 50/1.
    Car accident while playing 60/1.
    Death by robbery 100/1.
    Killed in street by car while wandering aimlessly during play 250/1.
    Killed by bus or other public while wandering 1000/1.
    Drowning while wandering 5000/1.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Trump is now several days overdue on the “release list of speakers for the GOP Convention” promise. I can only assume this means that actual politicians are running away as fast as possible and his campaign is trying to round up enough former Celebrity Apprentice competitors to fill out the timeslots (and possibly to fill out the Veep slot as well). Six days to go…

  5. 5.

    Felonius Monk

    How do you debate an idiot who is constantly blowing green smoke out of his ass?

    Maybe Hillary should bring a full length mirror so she can at least debate with herself.

  7. 7.

    Lee

    My money is Trump backs out after the first debate.

    Although to be honest, I’d be surprised to see him actually make the first one.

  8. 8.

    Felonius Monk

    @Betty Cracker:

    Anyone else gonna watch Nicolle Wallace interview ol’ sad sack Jeb on MSNBC?

    I’ve delegated that job to Mrs. Monk, since she is not easily bored.

  9. 9.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    Uncommitted voters? They are either lying or some of the stupidest motherfuckers around.

  11. 11.

    mak

    Still much room for shenanigans, depending on which network hosts & who is chosen to moderate. That, and the “uncommitted voters selected by Gallup” BS. Uncommitted. My. Ass.

    ETA: What Amanda said.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Odd that it’s only now showing up. I’ve had the debate schedule (dates AND locations) in my personal calendar for at least three weeks. Can’t remember where I got the info originally, though.

  14. 14.

    Aleta

    @khead:
    Stumbling, followed by falling off cliff.
    Battery dies, cannot find way home, death by exposure.
    Tripping over stick, landing in campfire.
    Bear lying in wait at historic site.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman: He has to show up. If not, he immediately (and accurately) gets tarred as a coward who ran away rather than facing -a girl-. He’s more likely to shave himself bald then that.

  17. 17.

    gf120581

    @dmsilev: Less “shave himself bald” and more “that rogue Tribble that’s been nesting on his head for the last few decades finally decides to decamp.”

  18. 18.

    Ian

    Questions will be asked by undecided voters (as decided by Gallup) in the second debate. Anyone who has not already made up their mind should not be the ones setting the agenda.

  20. 20.

    Keith P.

    Wow, 3 Pres debates? I didn’t expect that. I heard some (what I though was) sound analysis on CNN a few weeks back where the guy said “Trump will declare victory after the first debate and say there’s no need for any more.” Unless he does really well, but I just don’t see it, as on this stage he is going to have a real hard time glossing over without answering questions. And Hillary Clinton knows her stuff – details – backwards and forwards. All she really has to do is throw out some semi-obscure detail that the hosts and punditry will know but Trump won’t (aka Nuclear Triad redux)

  21. 21.

    Anne Laurie

    @khead: All three of the local NBC news stations had clips about Pokemon GO on the evening shows; all three included dire warnings from various local police departments warning players not to step out into traffic, to play the game while driving, or to get lured to dark corners late at night by would-be armed robbers.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @dmsilev: I’m a sucker for schadenfreud. Shorter Jeb: Conservatism has been failed.

    Thanks for the reminder about the speakers list. I’m certain you’re right about the cause.

  23. 23.

    RSR

    VP debate. Let’s imagine the possibilities.

    My favorite option is my VP-for-as-long-as-he-wants-it Biden vs I wish a MF would.

  24. 24.

    chopper

    @dmsilev:

    i hear ol blue eyes is gonna show up and talk for a whole 10 minutes about everything but trump. in your face, libs!

  26. 26.

    Schlemazel Khan

    He’ll show up and no matter what claim that he won YOOOOGE. The question really is will the media play along or will they call him out for lying, BS’ing and pulling stuff out of his ass?

    Drumpf is claiming that not only are all speaking slots filled for next week they are turning down people who are begging him for time. That means they are in deep trouble, particularly since they don’t have a list out yet.

  27. 27.

    TS

    The second debate will cover such issues as Benghazi, emails, BC’s women and other disproven memes from Hillary’s past. The only undecided voters will be deciding between voting for Trump or staying home.

  31. 31.

    Trentrunner

    Fuck Jeb Bush. He just said BOTH Trump and HRC don’t pass the “threshhold” for being president.

    ANYONE who can say that can put those two in the same “unqualified” category is either 1) a moral idiot or 2) an irredeemable political shill.

    Being a Bush, Jeb is both, of course.

  32. 32.

    Corner Stone

    Fucking James Comey. I hope he finds himself hanging upside down over a small but enduring firepit.

  33. 33.

    Culture of Truth

    Haven’t seen the schedule, but obviously rigged to favor Clinton, whom the media has been shilling for, for decades, obvs.

  34. 34.

    Jay C

    @dmsilev:

    He has to show up. If not, he immediately (and accurately) gets tarred as a coward who ran away rather than facing -a girl-. He’s more likely to shave himself bald then that.

    I doubt it: I’m sure that Combover Napoleon is more than capable of concocting some sort of b*llsh*t excuse to bail on one or more/all debates – some “rationale” involving the phrase “dishonest media”, no doubt – so he can go back to his favored style of campaigning: blustering, unchallenged crap-slinging and puerile insults.

  42. 42.

    amk

    The only good thing of deadbeat donald dreck’s run is he personally killed off the shrub criminal clan’s political life for ever.

  46. 46.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    @dmsilev:

    Trump didn’t show up for one of the Primary debates… and still won the night and never saw a hit in his base turnout. He’s bound to refuse the debate that takes questions from the floor – that’s the second one, usually – claiming it was rigged or complaining about “unfair’ treatment from the previous debate.

  48. 48.

    Miss Bianca

    Well, just back from Democratic Central Committee meeting, lively because of advocate for Amendment 69, the “Colorado Care” amendment – where we basically set up a state health care exchange independent of ACA (I want some more information on how *that* is supposed to work! – since it looks like I will be Designated Policy Wonk on this issue for the county).

    Oh, and the local forest fire has gone from 5,000 acres, 0% contained, to 10,000 acres, 0% contained, in less than 24 hours.

    That is all the news from Mt. Woebegon for this evening.

    Ah, life

  51. 51.

    Corner Stone

    @Omnes Omnibus: His OpEd when he announced a recco for no charges against HRC. He should have shut his fucking stupid mouth and not tried to inoculate himself against the republican terror machine.
    I hope he fucking burns to the fucking ground.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    @Trentrunner:
    I’ll give him about 1/10 of a percent of a point for the drumpf no vote call. It’s not a difficult call for a human but for a conservative of his “stature” not to support their candidate….. Of course he gets 10 points off for putting Clinton at the same level but really did anyone ever, anywhere expect him to endorse her? This is sun rises in the east territory. He is a fully paid member of the Bush crime family after all.

  54. 54.

    Yutsano

    @amk: George P is still worming his way through the Texas political ranks. The Bushes ain’t dead quite yet, although Barb is getting long in the tooth to run too much interference for him.

    @Big Me: Sigh. You just can’t stay dead can you?

  57. 57.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jay C:
    He can, easily, but it won’t work. I saw this play in Kentucky with Rand Paul. His supporters don’t care jack shit about his positions, but if he looks weak, they will abandon him – or at least become heavily dispirited.

    @PaulWartenberg2016:
    Totally different situation. By then, he’d slapped the other guys around so much, and there were so exhaustively many debates, that he could show dominance by doing it. If he does it to Hillary, he’ll look like a coward. With Sanders, Sanders looked like a pathetic beggar, so Trump could get his bully on and play keepaway. Again, doesn’t apply to the pre-arranged general election debates.

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Yo, boss man. Your favorite banhammer target is back as ‘Big Me.’

  58. 58.

    sharl

    Revisiting an old story: that spill into the Elk River (upstream from Charleston WV and well away from Cole) by – (hahahaha) – Freedom Industries, of the industrial chemical MCHM. It looks like the concentrations of the chemical were likely too low to cause deleterious health effects to the folks who were exposed. As I recall that Federal activity (National Toxicology Program) has its act together, so I would tend to trust their conclusions. Yay!…until next time.

    A more positive and cooler thing was in that same issue (or whatever):

    Engineered microbes make silver nanoparticles
    Repurposed bacterial iron-storing systems provide a greener process for nanoparticle synthesis

    Iron is essential to microbial life, but it can be scarce in many environments. So bacteria gather this nutrient and stash it away within intracellular compartments they can draw from when external sources dry up. Now, scientists have repurposed a recently discovered iron-storing compartment in bacteria, engineering the microbes to store silver instead of iron in order to produce silver nanoparticles for industrial uses (ACS Synth. Biol. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.6b00117).

    Silver nanoparticles—commonly used in antimicrobial coatings for bandages, clothing, and other products—are usually manufactured at industrial scales in processes that employ high temperatures or large amounts of chemical reagents. With engineered bacteria, these nanoparticles could be mass-produced by fermenting microbes in ways similar to those used to make vitamins, antibiotics, or beer.

    …In the past, researchers have made similar metallic nanostructures by engineering virus particles or another iron-storing protein known as ferritin, which result in particles about 21 to 50 nm or 5 to 8 nm in diameter, respectively. But it wasn’t previously possible to make silver nanoparticles in the 13 to 15 nm range formed by encapsulins, Geissen says, and this size range is essential for antimicrobial activity. In future work, encapsulins could be engineered to make other kinds of similarly sized metal particles with catalytic, magnetic, or other properties…

    ~
    Best wishes for that to work out!

    This concludes Science Corner…

  63. 63.

    jamesjhare

    I went to school at Longwood. I lived in Farmville for 3 years.

    Prince Edward County closed their public schools as part of “massive resistance.” They opened a private school for the whites and let black children go without education. Black students achieved some notoriety for walking out of their overcrowded four room high school prior to Brown.

    The town is still segregated even if the schools are not. It is by far the most deeply racist place I have ever lived. It is a despicable symbol of everything that is wrong with our rural communities.

  65. 65.

    Jeffro

    @efgoldman: True (that CC only got a plurality of the GOP krazies in the first place) but now he’s their guy, and most of their voters and most of their party leaders are behind him.

    Clinton will totally dust Trump in any and all debates he shows up for. But because he’s Trump, The Chaos Candidate (seriously, how did this clown ever get considered for anything higher than town dogcatcher?) all bets are off and all predictions are a waste of time. Maybe he’ll blow up, maybe he’ll skip debate #2, maybe he’ll stroke out when Hillz pants-es him on live TV.

    What is certain, is: I’m glad we have Hillary, and I like our chances. It’s up to us to GOTV and make it happen.

  66. 66.

    Peale

    @Anne Laurie: I have to admit, I’ve never seen anything like this in a long time. I downloaded the game Thursday while waiting for a haircut at the mall. The next day, I had to go back for something else and it was crazy the number of kids I saw wandering around in packs looking at their phones. Today, I had to go and pick up a jacket and it was crazy. It really is an urban game. Once you get to the suburbs, there aren’t that many places with the density of poke spots to attract a crowd. But even in my small village, the 12 poke spots and 4 gyms and sidewalks between see a constant stream of players. (I should know – I go hunting three times a day). Its too bad that it will soon turn into a scare fest. It’s popular, young people like it. And it involves the internet. I’m sure there will be “Pokemon Poses Moral Dangers” stories without end by Friday.

  67. 67.

    p.a.

    Trump will do well in the debates once the results are ‘unskewed’ and explained to the 27%-ers, who can then go on a jag about another ‘stolen’ election and the nefariousness of the Democrat party. This will continue until Rushbo has a radio audience consisting of 259 centenarians and the late Ann Coulter auto-twitter-bot is followed by 1,100 Idaho panhandle survivalists and former Bruin goalie Tim Thomas.

  68. 68.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    This thing on? Who broke the blog (“… database connection…”)?

    Maybe FYWP won’t eat so many comments now?

    Thanks for keeping the hamsters happy, AL and all. Fingers crossed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    jamesjhare

    @Peale: I’m trying to figure out how to encourage my teenage daughter to play without ruining it for her by making it parent approved. This game could be a huge social good if we don’t destroy in a wrong-headed panic over the HORROR of children wandering around unsupervised.

  70. 70.

    Renie

    @jamesjhare: I don’t know about people complaining about unsupervised kids; I would be more concerned about them walking around staring at the phone and not being aware of their surroundings. To easy to walk into the street without watching for traffic.

  71. 71.

    Ohio Mom

    In answer to the question, Why would the site of the first debate seem desireable: Wright State University is located in the northern exurbs of Dayton.

    There isn’t much nearby, it isn’t one of those campuses where you can cross the street and go bar-hopping or catch a bite. The street bordering the campus is a highway, and the other side of the campus abuts the air force base.

    There are dorms but also a good number of commuter students. A lot of the guys my husband the computer engineer has worked with over the years are alums; almost all of them were the first generation of their working class families to go to college. To put it metaphorically, it is on the other side of the state from Oberlin.

    So I’d guess isolation and security. It’s not like there aren’t a hundred other auditoriums in our swing state.

  72. 72.

    shortribs

    Hillary will be the “policy wonk” and Trump will be the “guts and common sense” candidate in the media’s eyes, so Trump will get props for just showing up, ala Palin. He won’t need to do anything but throw red meat to his small base and hammer Clinton on personality issues (true or not). The media will spin it as two different candidates choosing two different tactics and call it a tie. I might watch the first one, but I doubt I’ll watch the rest unless the VP debate looks promising.

  73. 73.

    burnspbesq

    Halftime: USA 6, Iroquois 3. USA on a 5-0 run. Fucking Tarhole got called for a three-minute, non-releasable penalty, but a Duke guy bailed his ass out.

  75. 75.

    Peale

    @jamesjhare: seriously, listening to the concerns…I’m just a little baffled. We want kids to go outside, and when they do, we want to lock them back inside. the more people outside, the safer it is for unsupervised teens to be outside. i like the fact that my suburban downtown has pedestrians. It’s like I’m back in the city.

  77. 77.

    Renie

    @efgoldman: OMG when I was a kid visiting my grandmother in NYC, I use to be afraid to walk on the grates in the sidewalks and the metal doors that went to basements under the stores. LOL

  78. 78.

    burnspbesq

    And four more in a row to open the third quarter. Austin Henningsen from Maryland is dominating on faceoffs, and the US offense is clicking. This one could be over.

  79. 79.

    xenos

    God forbid the cars drive slowly enough or carefully enough that pedestrians are not mowed down the moment they step off a curb.

  81. 81.

    hellslittlestangel

    Nicolle Wallace didn’t vote in 2008!

    She was a senior campaign adviser for John McCain.

  85. 85.

    trollhattan

    @Gin & Tonic:
    “Don’t let the smooth taste fool you.” I’m serious, first time I had Booker’s I didn’t bother to read the bottle, upon which I’d have learned it’s fooking nearly 65% alcohol, not proof, percent. Ow, my ballshead.

  86. 86.

    taras

    This Pokémon thing is incredible.
    There was some “function/module” at the park by my house and it was packed with kids walking around staring at their phones.
    I predict this will be the biggest fad of all time.

  87. 87.

    Mart

    Not sure if anybody answered your question on why these sites. Being a local I know Wash U in STL has a long Presidential debate history. From their website, “Washington University in St. Louis has hosted more debates than any other institution in history.” Wash U also hosted my second favorite VP debate behind Ross Perot’s Admiral Stockdale (I know it wasn’t fair to the Admiral). Princess Dumb-ass of the North versus big Joe Biden. Not sure why Wash U are favorites, must be gravitas, or free cocktails for the debate prep teams.

  89. 89.

    lamh35

    President Obama will be in DFW tomorrow along with FLOTUS. Sending up good vibes, prayers for his safety…I know…I know…it may be paranoid but it’s Dallas…IJS.

    also too, wonder if the police officers will turn their backs to POTUS like what happened with Bill DeBlasio? I’m thinking that would really backfire on them way more than it did in NYC. Would NOT be a good look for them AT ALL

  90. 90.

    karen marie

    @Betty Cracker: I accidentally flipped by and it sounded like she was asking him a fuck/marry/kill question. I kept moving, because that’s how much I care about that loser JEB!?

  94. 94.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Miss Bianca: If you’re setting up healthcare and you’ve got wildfires, having burn care is going to be soothing and a balm. What?????

  96. 96.

    sharl

    @Ohio Mom:

    Why would the site of the first debate seem desireable: Wright State University is located in the northern exurbs of Dayton.

    ~
    Just saw this; I might quibble over whether WSU is far enough north to be an exurb, but then I’d have to know where the Dayton city boundary actually is, and as many times as I’ve driven in those parts, I’ve never paid attention.

    That minor bit aside, your description is spot on.

    Having said that, if I were an activist with Black Lives Matter, I might note that the Walmart where poor John Crawford got blown away by a Beavercreek cop within a matter of a second or two is right across the freeway from Wright State. With all those press and politically powerful types nearby, there could be opportunity to keep the focus on a very important issue, while helping to ensure that another victim isn’t forgotten.

    Dunno if that will happen, and if it does, it might make a lot of folks unhappy – maybe more so on the Dem side – but I could see it as something the BLM folks ponder.

    A better idea: Hillary holds a pre-debate rally as near to that Walmart as she can get, as a means to remind the non-insane among us just what is at stake.

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Miss Bianca: Apparently the guy was about ten sheets to the wind. I’m glad they arrested him, for anything, because he lives about five to ten miles down the road in Mechanicsburg. It would have been very bad for him to be driving.

  103. 103.

    jonas

    Presidential debates are designed to push candidates to demonstrate their knowledge of foreign and domestic policy and if you haven’t done your homework, you look kind of stupid, right? So the stakes are high, right? I’m not so sure. Trump has turned this whole paradigm on its head. The media have simply been unable to deal with a candidate who could — I wouldn’t be surprised — walk on stage, drop his pants, take a huge steaming dump right in front of the moderator, and walk off giving a huge thumbs up and be declared the winner on all the “win-the-morning” newssites the next day. If he even agrees to all the debates, which he may or may not depending on whether his Dunning-Kruger condition is flaring up or not, he’s still going to “win” no matter what if he can simply keep from utterly imploding on stage. The genius of his campaign so far has been to set expectations so low, that going down in flames seems like a modest victory. (“His campaign has proved unflappable despite withering accusations of crass antisemitism…”)

  106. 106.

    eclare

    @lamh35: Been thinking the same, Obama in Dallas. Plus Joe, and W and Laura are going to be there too. Makes me nervous.

  107. 107.

    Miss Bianca

    @eclare: Security is going to be tighter than a gnat’s ass, but yeah…now that you mention it, I think I’ll still say a little prayer for all their safety.

    @Adam L Silverman: Jesus, Mary, and Bride. That is…one scary photo to have pop up suddenly!

  108. 108.

    TriassicSands

    (I’m still not sure Trump won’t lose it during the first debate and storm off the stage… assuming he even shows up.)

    I’m not sure what would make you think that Trump is in any way intimidated by Clinton. He’ll show up at the debate armed with his full repertoire of insults and spend the entire debate calling Clinton names. In a real debate, he would lose and the result would help Clinton. But it won’t be a real debate; it will be a reality show starring Donald Trump and the media will praise his skillful use of invective to dominate the show.

    Trump has the confidence and arrogance of a mentally ill person. Clinton’s command of facts is irrelevant to him and to his most avid supporters. The question will be how much will facts matter to everyone else. I think we know the media will be more impressed by showmanship than competence and I imagine much of the viewing audience will feel the same way.

    Haven’t we seen enough of Trump by now to realize that Hillary’s command of the minutia of governing will be next to useless in a “debate” with Trump?

  109. 109.

    Betty Gray

    Wright State is in Fairborn. I would consider it to be more east than north. I live 10 minutes from there, on the other side of the base.

    @jonas: @jonas: @<a href="

  113. 113.

    different-church-lady

    First Trump rejects all debates because the commission has “stacked the rules against” him.

    Then he proposes 19 debates to prove he’s not chicken.

    Then he accepts the three debates as scheduled.

    Then Hillary wins.

  114. 114.

    Steeplejack

    DVD Advisory!

    I’ll post again when it’s closer, but I just noticed that TCM will be showing Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (1969) at 10:00 p.m. EDT next Sunday. Should be a good lead-in to the GOP convention!

    Wexler wove actual footage from the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago into his story about “a TV news reporter [who] finds himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the [. . .] convention.”

    This film was mentioned in a thread or two a few days ago.

  115. 115.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TriassicSands:
    You would be correct, but that is not the dynamic. Clinton has demonstrated that she is more than just competent. She has mastered the body language to project that someone trying to insult her is not angering, but just kind of pathetic, amusing in a sad way. On top of that, she has demonstrated to great effect that she knows exactly the attacks that send Trump into unhinged, free-form, circular rants. Even to his base, those don’t look good. To the politically detached who are just tuning in now that the debates have started, they will be terrifying. She’s not going to stand there and take it and just try to prove her wonk. She has proven she can play this game better than him.

  116. 116.

    danielx

    @Jeffro:

    seriously, how did this clown ever get considered for anything higher than town dogcatcher?

    given the crew of wankers that populated the Republican primaries…hard to believe that so many complete fuckwits got up in the morning, looked in the mirror and thought “by jiminy, that’s presidential timber right there looking back at me” and proceeded to act on the thought. Any of those guys could have the two essential qualities for a Republican candidate – being a complete lunatic and having a gift for bullshitting/manipulating people. The Trumpenfuhrer ups those qualities by a fair amount and has a substantial fortune in the bargain, however much as it might be, plus the attention span of an irish setter on meth. He views this as entering a new business. After all, if he showed up in Hollywood with a billion dollars and announced hey, I’m a movie producer, everybody would nod and say yep, you are. He understands the Republican base better than anyone else, and exactly how to move them. He understands the media better than just about any presidential candidate (ever) and is running his campaign as a traveling reality show.

    Nobody has ever told him “nope, not allowed” because of law and/or morality – about anything.

    Edit – Brother Trump’s Traveling Salvation Show?

  117. 117.

    dogwood

    @TriassicSands:
    I have more faith in the public than you do. I remember the pundits declaring Sarah Palin the winner of her debate with Biden, and then looking foolish when the polling data showed the public wasn’t all that impressed with her or her performance.

  120. 120.

    Yutsano

    @lamh35: Have a strange feeling it will be the opposite. The DPF is a very different animal from most urban police departments.

  122. 122.

    Ian

    @Miss Bianca:
    My biggest concern with amendment 69 is that not one single supporter has explained it to me the same way. Everyone from petition signers to my fellow Democrats during the causus. A lot of people support it for a lot of different reasons, and it seems like a Rorsh test to me.

  123. 123.

    cokane

    I don’t get this idea that Trump is going to lose his shit during the debate. He fucking relished every moment in the Republican debates. The ones he went to anyways. He’s going to be the same full of himself gasbag we saw at those events. Steadfast in his own obvious superiority and devoid of any real substance.

  124. 124.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ian: Oh, useful feedback! I’ll try to figure it all out and maybe *I* can take a stab at explaining it!

    @Barb2: you’re…*into* this electronic fly swatter, aren’t you? (edges slightly away)

  125. 125.

    TriassicSands

    @efgoldman:

    @cokane:

    That was the point I was trying to make. A debate with Trump in the mix is not a conventional debate and it won’t be judged by conventional rules — or more correctly, it will be judged by different entities using different standards.

    Trump’s confidence isn’t based on anything rational, but rather on his own belief that he is a superior being capable of manipulating any setting to his own advantage. There should be lots of traditional journalists who will recognize Clinton’s vastly greater knowledge (Trump’s = 0 or even better an imaginary number) and command of policy. Trump barely acknowledges those people exist. He’s interested in the TV critics who will judge the debate on standards more appropriate for soap operas or reality shows.

    I just can’t see Trump being worried at all about how he’ll stack up against Hillary Clinton. He’ll fill his air time with outrageous accusations, innuendo, rumor, lies, and the vacuous nastiness that is his forte. If the Republican debates are any guide, Clinton will have to struggle to get anywhere near a fair share of the air time. By his own standards he can’t lose, so there is no reason to be afraid or even nervous about the debates.

    We’ll just have to wait and see how all that affects the voters — at least the ones who are still persuadable one way or the other.

    A normal, mentally healthy individual in Trump’s shoes might well be panicking at the idea of debating someone who is so much more knowledgeable and competent than he is. But Trump is neither normal, nor mentally healthy. No matter what everyone else says after the first debate, Trump will very likely be tweeting about how he utterly destroyed “Crooked Hillary.”

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