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punditman says…
No picture or icon accompanies this piece because no image can convey the indescribable.
I will start with a sample of texts I sent last night during the worst, most cringe-worthy American presidential debate in history.
“There's this debate thing happening. ‘The stakes are so high’ Katie Simpson is saying on CBC. Apparently there is this 25% cohort called the ‘Double Haters’ who can't possibly vote for either candidate.
“Holy fuck Biden is hyped up and rambling!”
“If I was an alien looking in and knew nothing, Trump is miles ahead. Joe is slurring his words and he keeps trailing off, completely lost.”
“Foreign policy was a complete disaster. Who is more pro Israel? It was disgusting.”
“At one point Biden went after Trump for ‘having sex w a porn star while your wife was pregnant.’ A total highlight for me.”
“This is not your parents' presidential debate.”
“Now it's golf! Can you believe this?”
“Biden's eyes scare me. In a blank stare kind of way.”
“Neither of them can string a coherent sentence together.”
“And so it just ended like that? They didn't even shake hands? CBC went straight to Katie Simpson in front of the White House.”
“Biden is going to have to resign if the Dems have any sense. That could well be the plan (let him screw up as they knew he would) and bring in a new candidate. There are a few possibilities.”
My thoughts today
I was amazed, not at Biden's word salad performance, but at the media’s flabbergasted reaction afterwards. That’s because Biden's cognitive decline and gaffes and confused exits from various stages have been documented for months, if not years.
CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault hosted a panel discussion with reporters Katie Simpson and Paul Hunter along with American reporters Brian Stelter and Tia Mitchell. With the possible exception of Mitchell, everyone seemed rather surprised after the debate, at Biden’s dismal performance.
I was absolutely certain this was going to be a train wreck for Biden. If punditman could predict it, why couldn’t these journalists?
If you’ve seen him speak lately or watched videos documenting how he repeatedly confuses Russia, Ukraine and Iraq or thinks his son was killed in Iraq (he wasn’t) it was obvious Biden would fare poorly against the existential Orange Menace and Blundering Bloviator, Donald Trump, who according to the New York Times lied 26 times.
Actually Biden made several false statements as well. Here’s the full list from both of them from the Associated Press.
There’s been chatter of a Plan B candidate parachuting in—after Biden is first hoisted by his own petard, which is exactly what happened. And yet the panelists acted as if this was a new idea. Is it too late, they wondered?
Finally, the word “Palestinian” came up just five times, which is completely ridiculous all by itself. Twice in questions to the candidates about Israel-Gaza and three times in Trump’s rambling, insane answer in which he said Biden was “a very bad Palestinian. He is a weak one” and how “We have the Palestinians and we have everybody else rioting all over the place.”
Biden never once mentioned the word “Palestinian” but he did say “the only thing I’ve denied Israel was 2,000-pound bombs. They don’t work very well in populated areas. They kill a lot of innocent people.”
Someone should tell him that so do all those other US weapons he’s provided.
A CNN rush transcript of this whole sorry debacle can be found here.
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It was SO painful to watch! It was infuriating that Trump could continually tornado out the absurd wackadoddle lies one after the next and nobody could fact check him. It was all left to Biden to refute them. And poor Joe looked like a corpse. He needs to step down with dignity and make way for someone forty years younger who can stand up to Trump for the next debate and the entire campaign. There is way too much at stake for the entire planet if Trump gets in again.