Presidential debate: To be or not to be
While most presidential debates are anticipated – more or less a foregone conclusion – a 2024 face-off has been in doubt.
Many pundits have predicted that a head-to-head debate between President Biden and President Trump will not take place. Those prognostications appear to be based on hints from Biden operatives that the President will not share the debate stage with Trump. Their reasoning is that Trump will not behave himself – and they do not wish to provide him with an opportunity to expound. They claim that such a debate will devolve into a political circus.
Conversely, many pundits believe the real reason Biden will not agree to a debate is that he may not come off well. He would be outside of the protective bubble that has limited his appearances to scripted and controlled messaging. They believe the risk of a gaffe or senior moment is too high.
The general assumption that Biden would not engage in debate with Trump was set back during an appearance on the Howard Stern Show. The host said to Biden, “I don’t know if you’re going to debate your opponent.” To which Biden responded, “I am somewhere. I don’t know when. I’m happy to debate him.”
The reply comes from the man himself. It was unequivocal. He WILL debate Trump – just a matter of when and where. A presidential debate is “to be.” Or is it?
Uncertainty remains for several reasons. This was a bold announcement, and yet there was not a lot of confirmation by Biden handlers and spokespersons. The various responses could be summed up with “Yes, Biden definitely wants to debate Trump, but …” It is that “but” that casts a shadow of doubt.
Another thing that casts doubts on Biden’s statement is that there has been no planning for such a debate. By now negotiating teams should have been appointed to consider the venues and the format. Negotiating a presidential debate is not an easy or quick process.
Was Biden’s response to Stern a strategic announcement or was it another gaffe – Biden winging it on his own when not looking at his ubiquitous talking-point cheat sheets?
That would not be surprising. Biden has a habit of making very strong or definitive statements only to backslide. (Does Ukraine, Israel and border security come to mind?) We have seen the White House occasionally “clarify” such statements – essentially announcing that Biden did not mean what he said. (Remember Biden saying that Putin could not be allowed to stay in power, and the White House served up a correction?)
No Biden or campaign spokesperson has given up on the original argument that Biden should not – and will not – give Trump a platform to … shall we say … do his thing,
If the Biden/Trump debate is “not to be,” it will likely be scuttled in some negotiations. The Biden team will claim that they simply could not agree on the specifics — blaming Trump for the impasse, of course.
The fact that the media did not give Biden’s important newsworthy announcement more coverage and follow-up suggests that the folks in the Fourth Estate are not taking Biden’s stated willingness to debate seriously. They are not convinced – nor am I.
So, there ‘tis.
Of course he will debate —– if the terms are fair.
And therein will lie the rub. The terms.
That will actually be the next debate on the debate and if Trump signs up for something fair, there will be one.
It’s going to be the shit show for Biden
Oh my, PBP must be gearing up—— so many Trump stories, so little time before November………
The debate may actually go against Trump.
One of many reasons is Biden is a complete Shit Show.
Pointing out any of the problems Biden has created in Bombastic Trump
fashion will drive the media to report Trump is a Bully, arrogant, and beating up
the President.
Forget all the thousands of reasons Trump would be fair in his words. The media will
play him to be a bad guy just by speaking the truth.
If you were a Biden suck up before, you will be enticed to suck up
even further as the fools they are.
Trump in my opinion has more than enough reason to go after this current moron in office
but will he turn anyone? NO!
He should skip the debate.
Trump can not even get a fair trial, what makes anyone think the coverage
of a debate would be fair.
Darren …I should have noted in the commentary. Biden agreed to A debate. In past years, there was a serious of presidential debates. If there are any, there will be only one. Biden and his handlers will never risk more than one.
Larry, you’re hiding behind your own made-up statements: “Many pundits have predicted that a head-to-head debate between President Biden and President Trump will not take place” and “many pundits believe the real reason Biden will not agree to a debate is that he may not come off well”. This is a tactic that Trump himself uses, “Many people come up to me and say, Sir,…” which is usually followed by some outrageous lie that he just made up to bolster some other lie.
The real reason that there will be no debate (and I’m sure many pundits will back me up on this) is that Trump is a sputtering idiot, and knows that Biden will make him look bad. Biden (or Dark Brandon, if you will), is the king of sarcastis zingers, and Trump is not willing to subject himself to ridicule. Sure, Trump can say anything he wants when he’s in front of his rabid sycophants, and they’ll cheer for everything he says, but statments that get broadcast from his rallies usually come off sounding moronic or downright fascistic to anyone not part of his drooling cult.
Trump does not like to be made fun of, and will not get on the debate stage. Period. He’s the emperor with no clothing, and he’ll only lose votes by showing his naked ass in public (just a metaphor, but “shudder”)… Just like he won’t testify at his trial – it’s already gone from “of course I’ll testify”, to “maybe, we’ll see”, to “‘I’m not allowed to testify because of the gag ruling”. Trump always has handy excuses to fall back on.
Biden has 4 years of solid performance and a sharp wit to fall back on, and Trump has… 3rd-grader names for everyone? drinking clorine bleach to cure COVID? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Inviting Russians into the White House? Love letters to Kim? Porn stars and cheating on his wife? He can’t even call Biden “Sleepy Joe” anymore, now that he’s sleeping EVERY DAY through his own criminal trials. And even his own lawyer, likely gagging in the stench surrounding Trump, couldn’t help himself and read “Von Schitzenpantz” into the (very public) court record.
There won’t be a debate because his pathetic lying press secretary (KJP) won’t be present to bullshit for him – his Deep State Obama Ivy League pajama boys and girls can’t be on stage with him – the Fake propaganda news TV media won’t be able to counter the total failures of his sick and corrupt policies – the talking heads of the Fake demorat party won’t be on stage with him to shield him from the body piercing bullets he’ll have to take – they won’t trust Sleepy Creepy to withstand the blitzkrieg attack that President Trump (our real president) will make upon this impostor! This time the covid (the CCP virus) scam will NOT save him! He has NO positive record to stand on – pick any subject! Even a lot of Americans are brain dead, they’ll be enough of them that will see through the empty suit of a politician that has scammed the American people for decades! No, Sleepy Creepy Disgusting Decrepit Dementia Joey will NOT get a free pass this time! Trump will nail him on ALL his past lies like the 51 intelligent officials that lied out their ass about Hunter’s Laptop From Hell! The real truth does eventually comes out! They can’t handle the truth!!
Robert, I hope EVERYTHING you stated will happen!
Trump, Trump, Trump!
By the way, the PLANNED NEW VIRUS will happen 1 year into his presidency.
( Prediction )
RHag: You can whine, you can cry, cry wolf, and continue to bay like a dog at the moon about Joe Biden.
BUT YOU CAN’T CATCH HIM.
You got your press, you got your House investigation by gay Jorden and pedo Comer that can’t find Diddley and you spend all your time torching Speakers.
Come back when you have a case, with evidence, and stop the noise.
We have a case. It’s the economy, stupid!!!
Frank: Go play with yourself! Your side was bottle fed on whining! Go make yourself useful and join a pro-Hamas campus riot! You’re going to get your ass primaried in November! When it happens, then you can employ your pathetic ways of whining! You’re really not worth even emailing as your side has NOTHING of offer except the full destruction of a once great nation! Don’t worry pal, when Trump becomes our 47th president you’ll be either dashing for cover or you’ll join your other brothers and sisters in setting our major cities ablaze as does Antifa – BLM or Pro Hamas domestic terrorists! Hey Frank…I’ll pray for you as you’ll need a hell of a lot of prayers from where you’re going!!!
This article gets a Stop The Spin rating of STS-4: Here is why:
Bottom line: This article attempts to make Biden the sole reason why a debate might not happen with Trump while totally disregarding the fact that right now, the biggest variable is Trump himself! His court schedule!! Should the debate be arranged in a University setting or at Riker’s Island!!! Will Trump be the nominee if he ends up in jail? Hey Larry, why did you not include any of this in your ridiculous calculus!!!
Here’s more reasons why I gave this an STS-4 rating:
1) A Freudian slip by Larry, it is not “President Trump” as he writes in the second paragraph, it is “FORMER President Trump”.
2) Biden was simply expressing the willingness to debate Trump, but the final say will be by Biden and his campaign manager. I think Biden can use the same excuse as Trump, “Why should I debate when I am leading the polls in many states AND I have caught up in the swing states?” If this worked for Trump in the primary, it should work for Biden now. Maybe a better strategy for Biden is to let the court cases do his talking. So far we have: Digital rapist, business fraud, scamming a judge when he had a bond company available, election fraud is being tried now. Soon document mishandling and non-compliance with a DOJ order. And then Jan 6th.
3) Exactly how much debate planning and negotiating has Trump’s team done? I have not heard of any. Right now his team is wondering if he will be convicted and in jail. We could call it the “Jailhouse Debate” with Trump coming live from his cell at Riker’s Island! With all of Trump’s court dates, how can anyone plan a date for a debate? Trump is much more of a question mark than Biden.
4) Biden has not backslid on Ukraine, he was just slow getting to the party. Biden has a tough situation to negotiate in Israel with a prime minister that will not listen to Biden when it comes to his state’s security. If you want to talk about “Biden not meaning what he said”, then lets also talk about all of the times Trump’s staff and the media (including Larry) had to have their special decoder ring on to make sense of what Trump said! How many times did Pence have to get in front of the media and say that “That’s not really what the President meant. He actually meant this………(you fill in the blank).
5) The reason Larry is not convinced is written in the second paragraph when / where he (Larry) still feels Trump is President, and he says so in the second paragraph! Again, for ole Larry, it’s FORMER President Trump!!!
Truth is, we all know how Trump acts and that he is very transactional and will screw anyone in a minute if they do not comply with his way of thinking. And we also know Biden is slow to the party and wants to build out the middle class but we will have higher inflation as a result of both men dumping money into the economy. So not much more needs to be known. What is more interesting is to listen to the Vice POTUS debate to see what each thinks since the likeliness of either men dying in office is higher than with many past presidents.
Tom … Like Frank, your most important motive is to attack me … my credibility .. my knowledge .. and my thinking. Because that is your motive, you wind up making incredibly stupid arguments — one after another. It is not likely that Trump will be incarcerated anytime soon — so suggesting he would not be available to debate is a stupid argument. There is plenty of time to plan and carry out even more than one debate. Saying that is not possible is stupid. No Biden has not caught up in all the swing states.. Saying that is stupid. In fact, the most recent poll has Trump ahead again. These are close races and are like to flip back and forth. Biden has still not sent the fighter jets to Ukraine. He still disallows attacks inside Russia. To try to claim that Biden is no longer operating on his too little/too late policy is inaccurate — ergo a stupid argument. Former Presidents are traditionally address as President. It has been going on for since the founding of the Republic. You criticism is ignorant and stupid. And I bet you suggesting that a VP debate is more important since the presidential candidates may not survive four years. I bet Biden would call you suggestion … well … stupid. I did not waste much time giving you point-by-point rebuttal because I trust that anyone who may happen to read your post will see the stupidity for themselves. Every time you write these days, I see that old curmudgeon Statler on the balcony ranting away. LOL
If you have a problem with me personally, come at me direct old man.instead of backhanding me when you have an issue with Tom.
Better yet, stick to the issues and quit crying about nonexistent personal attacks.
Still waiting for you to get specific instead of generalities from your last attempt. Just can’t do it, can you.
Frank Stetson …. LMAO … You have attacked me in posts to other authors and i mention you one and you go ballistic. And you claim your constant attacks on me are non-existent. LOL In addition to be a confirmed liar you are a one effing hypocrite. Give it up the mindless bickering. You are make a fool of yourself with your wounded ego in full view.
It would be a circus. No one can shut Trump up long enough to actually have a debate. He doesn’t know what a debate is. For him, it would just be another platform to shout all his blather, unsubstantiated fake accusations and baseless lies. How many times has he been fact-checked and found wrong and even lying? A debate would be a senseless exercise to test Biden’s longtime patience. There isn’t any valid reason to even suggest a debate. Look at the last debates he participated in. Compared to then, today’s Trump is so far off his rocker with all his rants, raves, yelling, mudslinging, and self-aggrandizing behavior — even the judicial system has trouble bridling him long enough to have a decent trial.
Jamie … If you think that is how Trump would act, I would think you would be all in on a debate — more than one. You seem to believe Trump would come off very badly compared to Biden. Biden should be all in for debates, if you are right. But we know from reports that Biden’s handles do not think a debate is a good idea. They would not be thinking that way if they thought they would win. What are they afraid of??
Horist et all
As one once spanked by Spanky the Clown, are you still in the rowboat and pulling on them oars for Trump the Spanked? Rolled up magazine. Heard it was a copy of The New Yorker. A little hymietown rag rap on his heinie in stormy weather. I just knew there’d be kink.
I laughed, I cried, it’s now a part of me.
You guys can regale each other in the art of being spanked!
It never gets old with this guy. Imagine Stormy’s thought bubble as he tells her: “you remind me of tiffany, you know, before the bitch bloated out.” Somewhere, Ivanka is thinking: “gross. What did the pig say about me.”
No mas, no mas. Make it stop please.