2024 U.S. Elections | Trump v Harris

I think that Harris started weak, but she basically knocked out Trump with the ‘people are leaving his rallies early’ line. I do not think Trump minded the Hannibal Lecter and windmills causing cancer, but when she said that his rallies are boring and people are leaving early, that was it for Trump, and after that, he was incapable of saying anything coherent and looked like an idiot even for his very low standards. Then it was all Kamala and overall I think she comfortably won the debate.

Narcissistic injury. She jabbed the sword deep into his feeble mind.
 
Yes, they eat dogs and aborted babies. I was a brilliant baby, probably best baby of all. And I had billions and billions of dogs.

Rumbling maniac.
 
I think that Harris started weak, but she basically knocked out Trump with the ‘people are leaving his rallies early’ line. I do not think Trump minded the Hannibal Lecter and windmills causing cancer, but when she said that his rallies are boring and people are leaving early, that was it for Trump, and after that, he was incapable of saying anything coherent and looked like an idiot even for his very low standards. Then it was all Kamala and overall I think she comfortably won the debate.
It was incredible seeing him taking the bait on getting 400 million from his father and fixating on that in his answer, getting derailed on one of his favourite topics. He really is a literal child, and Harris won by treating him as such, because I think it was pretty much a tie after the first two rounds, economy and abortion.
 
Woke up to the good news. It seems she did way better than I thought. She won by points, not by KO though, but that rarely happens anyway. Hopefully it will have an effect on the polls, even a slight improvement in the numbers could prove decisive in such a toss-up election, but only if Trump won't beat his polls again. We will have to wait for a week or more for any potential debate effect on the polls. Personally, I'll wait till the last week of September.
 
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Just watched it. Unfortunately, I don’t think it was the Harris landslide this thread is suggesting. She won, certainly, but partly due to Trump going completely off the rails in the second half when many viewers must have turned off or made up their minds. Many will have seen him as the winner of the pivotal first round, economy, where Harris could be perceived as dodging, and Trump escaped less harmed from the abortion round than he should have been because Harris/the moderators left his lunacy unchecked.

Still a good night for Harris who proved she can hold her own in these circumstances but I don’t think this moves the needle much.

It was a good night for her. She didn’t convince any Maga lunatics to vote for her, but she did probably impress a fair number of Independents that she is up for the job. Swift’s endorsement was far more consequential than anything said on the debate stage last night, and its timing couldn’t have been better.
 
Woke up to the good news. It seems she did way better than I thought. She won by points, not by KO though, but that rarely happens anyway. Hopefully it will have an effect on the polls, even a slight improvement in the numbers could prove decisive in such a toss-up election, but only if Trump won't beat his polls again. We will have to wait for a week or more for any potential debate effect to affect the polls. Personally, I'd wait till the last week of September.
It was by points, but very comfortable. In boxing terms, she won like 9 rounds out of 12, and knocked down Trump. The only KO win I remember is Trump vs Biden, and that was mostly Biden repeatedly hitting himself while Trump was staying in his corner watching.
 
It was incredible seeing him taking the bait on getting 400 million from his father and fixating on that in his answer, getting derailed on one of his favourite topics. He really is a literal child, and Harris won by treating him as such, because I think it was pretty much a tie after the first two rounds, economy and abortion.
Indeed. Seems like Dems strategy was simple: Bait Trump on saying crazy stuff. And he didn't feel to disappoint.

He is an angry baby. If there is a second debate, Harris should play it similar, just bait him repeatedly and watch him doing damage to himself.
 
.........Not sure I'd be taking zingers from the Germans on energy policy to be honest.
Why? I love the fact that the state helped me to install solar panels on my roof. My energy costs are nearly nonexistent and I get clean energy. Seems pretty cool to me. The more than 50% renewables in our energy mix are pretty cool, too.
 
I think that Harris started weak, but she basically knocked out Trump with the ‘people are leaving his rallies early’ line. I do not think Trump minded the Hannibal Lecter and windmills causing cancer, but when she said that his rallies are boring and people are leaving early, that was it for Trump, and after that, he was incapable of saying anything coherent and looked like an idiot even for his very low standards. Then it was all Kamala and overall I think she comfortably won the debate.
She did, she looked bad in the economy part, but I’d say from Trump saying that Dems kill babies onwards it was a demolition.
 
Kaitlin Collins is not happy tonight.
She did, she looked bad in the economy part, but I’d say from Trump saying that Dems kill babies onwards it was a demolition.
I don’t agree that she looked bad on the economy. She was solid and raised reasonable points. Essentially, she was able to respond well throughout the debate to questions about her weaker topics. There was no moment throughout the night where I felt that Trump got her or cornered her.

The flip side? He couldn’t make progress on his weaker topics, such as abortion and healthcare.
 
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I would say one of her biggest wins here overall is she demonstrated like a real time how very easy to manipulate he is. And its something that can reach even the most unsophisticated voter. When you say world leaders can make him agree or do anything. Which many Dems have tried to tell voters since 2016. She literally came out with a game plan to SHOW IT. Live.

Poke his most vulnerable narcissist tendencies and not subtly either. They were so obvious, but she and her team knew he could be baited. I think the strategy was brilliant. And if he were not graded on a curve there is no way you can say that wasn't a knock out. Who else could go on a debate stage yell absolute nonsense about immigrants eating pets and survive that?

And her eye contact and body language looking him dead in the face
 
So Trump’s characters witnesses are Orban & Abdul of the Talliban, interesting choices.
 
I'll hold my hands up and say maybe I was wrong about Harris. When Biden stepped down I thought she was an empty suit and wouldn't stand a chance against Trump. She's not a transformative politician, but she's a good candidate. She's compassionate, she's smart and she has the ability to appeal to the everyone other than MAGA males. It might also be she's the perfect candidate to take out Trump: against his insecure, cold, inhumanity and dishonest bluster she comes across as warm, sincere and credible.
 
All her fans are probably Democrats anyway

Im not sure all. Is she really as influential as the news networks that are prominent in many states? If a Swiftie happens to pick up their news from Fox, because their parents watched it growing up, are they really going to have a different world view because she/he happens to love T Swift?
 
Are popstar endorsements a big thing in American politics or is Tay just a different breed of pop culture megalodon now?

Halting a VP candidate to tell him that Taylor Swift is backing him and Harris and social media acting like she is the silver bullet for Trump is a bit bizarre.
Normally celebrities wouldn't have much influence at all, but Taylor Swift is essentially the world's sweetheart, by her encouraging her fans to vote might be enough to tip the balance in some swing states, especially in her home state of PA
 
I think that Harris started weak, but she basically knocked out Trump with the ‘people are leaving his rallies early’ line. I do not think Trump minded the Hannibal Lecter and windmills causing cancer, but when she said that his rallies are boring and people are leaving early, that was it for Trump, and after that, he was incapable of saying anything coherent and looked like an idiot even for his very low standards. Then it was all Kamala and overall I think she comfortably won the debate.

I think Trump basically forgot every question after that, his pride was hurt and it became his sole focus.
 
How the UK press are reportimg it. Must be one of the first times ever that the DM is more balanced than most.

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Telegraph
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DM
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We are all football fans and we know that if you are blaming the refs then usually you know you didn't do enough to win.

CNN Fact Checked both candidates and it was something like 35 falsehoods from Trump and 1 from Harris. Now, if Trump had not been continuously lying, then there would be no need to fact check him. I think they hosts were actually quite soft on him because they let him rant on without answering the majority of the questions he was asked, as well as giving him more mic time than Harris.

And it was Trump that brought up the pets, not ABC. Quite hilarious that he picked up on this nonsense, was probably told not to mention it because it was proven to be BS by all credible news networks yesterday, but he couldn't help himself. And when fact checked live, his response was "well, i saw it on TV". It just tell you all you need to know - a Presidential candidate bringing to the debate things he "saw on TV".

Im sure the like of Cruz, Jim Jordan, Vance and Musk who propagated this crap feel pretty stupid because their nonsense has been regurgitated by Trump in front of 60mil+ people, only to be made to look like your crazy uncle. Another self own, just like creating AI pics of Taylor Swift.
 
I think that Harris started weak, but she basically knocked out Trump with the ‘people are leaving his rallies early’ line. I do not think Trump minded the Hannibal Lecter and windmills causing cancer, but when she said that his rallies are boring and people are leaving early, that was it for Trump, and after that, he was incapable of saying anything coherent and looked like an idiot even for his very low standards. Then it was all Kamala and overall I think she comfortably won the debate.
The first thing Harris did was move to shake his hand, it took Trump offguard, he wasn't expecting that and by his facial expression he really didn't want to shake her hand, that set the tone for the rest of the night and he couldn't handle it
 
We are all football fans and we know that if you are blaming the refs then usually you know you didn't do enough to win.

CNN Fact Checked both candidates and it was something like 35 falsehoods from Trump and 1 from Harris. Now, if Trump had not been continuously lying, then there would be no need to fact check him. I think they hosts were actually quite soft on him because they let him rant on without answering the majority of the questions he was asked, as well as giving him more mic time than Harris.

And it was Trump that brought up the pets, not ABC. Quite hilarious that he picked up on this nonsense, was probably told not to mention it because it was proven to be BS by all credible news networks yesterday, but he couldn't help himself. And when fact checked live, his response was "well, i saw it on TV". It just tell you all you need to know - a Presidential candidate bringing to the debate things he "saw on TV".

Im sure the like of Cruz, Jim Jordan, Vance and Musk who propagated this crap feel pretty stupid because their nonsense has been regurgitated by Trump in front of 60mil+ people, only to be made to look like your crazy uncle. Another self own, just like creating AI pics of Taylor Swift.
Listening to TRIP podcast, and one of the American hosts on it used to work for him, and apparently if you specifically tell him not to do something he will just go out of his way to do it. This could be an example of that.
 
As annoying as he is, I don't really get why people react with such vitriol to his modelling.

Some have said this before, but, his uniqueness was his model of aggregating polls without stupid punditry.
2 famous examples:
In the 2016 primaries, he ignored the polls and added all sorts of funny weighing factors because he couldn't believe Trump was actually up. His model kept insisting that Marco Rubio or Cruz or Jeb Bush was going to win, until it was way too obvious Trump has destroyed them all.

In 2022, not just did he include a lot of junk Republican polls (like Patriot Polling, run by 2 high school students in Wisconsin or something), he fudged the model because he couldn't believe the Republicans weren't going to win the senate.

 
Listening to TRIP podcast, and one of the American hosts on it used to work for him, and apparently if you specifically tell him not to do something he will just go out of his way to do it. This could be an example of that.

For sure. I have heard one of the Generals, maybe Mark Milley, say the same thing recently. He is a 78 year old child.
 
To be fair, he tried but his brain and body weren't up to the demands of a live debate.

Biden did pretty well in the debates in 2020, but as you say, very different Biden now. Trump has even less self control now and is far let coherent. He was rambling from one topic to the next - a skill which he likes to call "The Weave"....

 
As a pet owner I cannot in good faith support Kamala Harris who is paying immigrants to consume cats and dogs of Ohio.
 
The amount of insane shit that comes out of trump’s mouth is genuinely incredible.
It’s like Alan partridge and the Norfolk farmers scene. But it’s real life.
I can’t get my head around it.
 
Gotta say I'm here for the Alf references. Damn illegal aliens eating our cats...

It's really cute that he thinks he won the debate.
 
He said Harris "wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison"!
When you think about it, what is actually his complaint here? To them, transgender operations are very bad, and illegals aliens are very bad people. So Harris wants to do bad things to bad people. Is his complaint mostly from a financial point of view, meaning that it is dumb she wants to spend money on it?
 
Yes, we all know this and we have to take this account when we evaluate the performances. Trump being a lunatic is not in itself a weakness on his part, it’s his brand. It’s what he sells. But I agree that when it came to her demeanour and authority (tough without being condescending etc.), she did very well.

On the economy, I wish she would have been more direct in answering the first question of the night (as well as several other questions), which was if she thought the economy was better or worse off after four years of Biden presidency. It was an easy opportunity to acknowledge the nuances and complexities while also educating the undecideds in some basic economics lessons about the root causes of inflation (thereby taking the sting out of Trump’s subsequent attacks). I believe many of the lies and misleading things Trump is spouting will go unnoticed unless you carefully and soberly explain why they are wrong.

On the last part: Do you think this was a death knell for Trump comparable to the Biden disaster? I wish it was but to me that is exactly that, wishful thinking.
No, it won't make party insiders insist Trump step down, a la Biden. Biden's feck up was far more consequential. But the narrative shifted last night. No one who watched that can pretend Trump was anything other than a hateful, ignorant, rambling, bigoted, angry old man. The contrast between him and Harris was night and day.

I don't understand why everyone doesn't just stop everytime Trump says democrats want post 9 month abortions and ask him, SO THEY WANT TO MURDER LIVING BABIES?! And just refuse to continue any form of conversation until he explains this.
Because it was a trap of sorts. Trump and the forced-birthers want the conversation to be about when life starts (conception or birth). If Harris responded to that, as you suggested, Trump would have some response along the lines of "it's the same thing, murdering a baby is murdering a baby, just a couple weeks earlier". Harris did well to ignore the inflammatory nonsense and stick to her own attack plan, which worked beautifully.
Are popstar endorsements a big thing in American politics or is Tay just a different breed of pop culture megalodon now?

Halting a VP candidate to tell him that Taylor Swift is backing him and Harris and social media acting like she is the silver bullet for Trump is a bit bizarre.
Pop star endorsements largely don't matter except for one brief news cycle. Taylor Swift, however, is the most beloved person on the entire planet. Her fans are online and motivated. Swift has been in the public eye for more than half her life, and her fans have aged along with her, many are now bringing their own daughters to her shows. The kids who turn 18 today and 17 years more of them, equal Taylor's age of 35. She has put a link to register to vote, and she has been unequivocal in who she supports (without hammering the point). So Swift's endorsement could theoretically inspire a wave of young voters who skew Democratic, and in battleground states, it will only take a few thousand new voters to win.

In a cultural sense, Trump was stoked when there was an AI-generated image of "Swifties for Trump", and he's apparently obsessed with her. This was a kick in the balls for him. The most popular person on the planet just gave a roaring endorsement of his opponent. In the words of Bruce Campbell,, "THAT'S GOTTA HURT!"