Proof of Burden: Agreed, I think this concedes something very untrue about Thursday night's debate, and that when you look past the delivery, Biden promised young voters most of what they have been asking for, the way they said they want it asked (hoarseness and stutter aside)

Everybody who said they’d vote for a damp waffle over Trump back in 2020 better put their money where their mouth is this November.

“Oh but Biden—“ Is not Trump. That’s how you end the sentence in the reality in which we live. It sucks and we need to change it, but your choices are the Damp Waffle Administration or Project 2025. That’s it. Sorry.

Agreed, I think this concedes something very untrue about Thursday night's debate, and that when you look past the delivery, Biden promised young voters most of what they have been asking for, the way they said they want it asked (hoarseness and stutter aside)

Bringing back Roe with a full-throated endorsement of first trimester abortion, more climate action like the IRA, student loans, and several other marquis issues in line with the Sanders 2020 promises. He's not a damp waffle, and if you read the transcript, it's exciting stuff!

Yes! I was just about to say this. Biden has done some incredible good and none of it gets talked about.

I liveblogged the debate and the winner was very clearly Biden, because he was debating, not performing. The current problem is optics, as in that respect, Biden failed at his job of presenting “POTUS = KICKASS SUPERHERO” Head cold won this round.

I think it is very bad strategy and oblivious to what fascism *is* to concede that we should hold this conversation entirely on the terms of aesthetics. Governance by optics is bad, it is what fascism promises, and you should kick "optics" narratives like they owe you money

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly But I’m talking about living in the reality of a two-party system in which a fraction of citizens watched the debate, a fraction of that read the transcript, & the rest get their news from memes and soundbites Optics is advertising, and Biden’s job was to sell himself

His job THE REST OF THE TIME is to be POTUS, and—domestically—he has been the best in my lifetime. But the space of that debate, his job was to be Kickass Superhero You Can Trust, and while he won the debate, he failed at that message.

Yes, I understand that you think politics is ultimately a contest of aesthetic visions! I am very clear on this!

You aren't agreeing with your whole heart, or any of it, if your point at the end is to do the opposite, but I understand why it feels necessary to soften that

Please don’t tell me what I think and feel. I’m communicating my position. That’s all I can do here on Al Gore’s internet.

Debating Trump is like playing chess with a pigeon. It'll just shit all over the board and strut around like it won.

I agree with this take in part, but I don’t think a head cold said “we beat Medicare” and that line is gonna hang around his neck like “read my lips” for HW Bush. A lot went wrong for Biden and I’m not ready to say he won on debate points, nor on projecting presidential gravitas.

I agree that his substantive answers were stronger, better policy, and, well, truthful. That shouldn’t be a high bar, but against Trump it’s an important threshold to clear.

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