By any objective measure, and by that I mean any non-Trumpian measure, he was putrid last night. There were a couple of strong moments but nearly the entire night was yet another string of lies, implications, and general nonsense. He offered scant little to no substance on pretty much everything discussed and almost every answer he gave ended up circling back to his greatest hits. Obviously there is no chance in hell I am voting for Trump but even if that were Obama sitting there last night I would have been like WTF Barack. Of course, Trumpsters are incapable of that kind of honest review of Dear Leader so they most definitely thought he was the bees knees.

If you are looking for a single moment that maybe encapsulates the entire night (and you probably could pick from a dozen), this may be it:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You mentioned masks. We have Julie Bard who’s from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania.

TRUMP: Yeah.

STEPHANOPOULOS: She’s right here. She has a question about that. You voted for Hillary Clinton last time I believe.

BARD: Yes I did. The wearing of masks has proven to lessen the spread of COVID. Why don’t you support a mandate for national mask wearing? And why don’t you wear a mask more often?

TRUMP: Well, I do wear them when I have to and when I’m in hospitals and other locations. But I will say this. They said at the Democrat convention they're going to do a national mandate. They never did it, because they’ve checked out and they didn’t do it. And a good question is, you ask why Joe Biden -- they said we’re going to do a national mandate on masks.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He’s called on all governors to have them. There’s a state responsibility…

TRUMP: Well no, but he didn’t do it. I mean, he never did it. Now there is by the way, a lot of people don’t want to wear masks. There are a lot of people think that masks are not good. And there are a lot of people that as an example you have…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Who are those people?

TRUMP: I’ll tell you who those people are -- waiters. They come over and they serve you, and they have a mask. And I saw it the other day where they were serving me, and they're playing with the mask...I’m not blaming them...I’m just saying what happens. They're playing with the mask, so the mask is over, and they're touching it, and then they're touching the plate. That can’t be good. There are a lot of people. If you look at Dr. Fauci’s original statement...you look at a lot of people, CDC, you look at a lot of people’s original statement, they said very strongly, George, don’t wear masks. Then all of a sudden they went to wear masks. The concept of a mask is good, but it also does...you’re constantly touching it, you’re touching your face, you’re touching plates. There are people that don’t think masks are good.

I know Cal was kind of joking about this in the thread, but the Inquirer has really leaned into the "Middle of nowhere PA" Trump stories. "It all began in a dusty coal mine in Bumblefuck, PA. Mike used to be an Obama voter, then voted for Trump, now he's undecided again." Swear they've written this article 15 times in the last few months now, and it's always in the Sunday paper.

Anyway, if that's your kind of thing, here you go: https://fusion.inquirer.com/politics/el ... 00913.html

traderdave wrote:TRUMP: I’ll tell you who those people are -- waiters. They come over and they serve you, and they have a mask. And I saw it the other day where they were serving me, and they're playing with the mask...I’m not blaming them...I’m just saying what happens. They're playing with the mask, so the mask is over, and they're touching it, and then they're touching the plate. That can’t be good. There are a lot of people. If you look at Dr. Fauci’s original statement...you look at a lot of people, CDC, you look at a lot of people’s original statement, they said very strongly, George, don’t wear masks. Then all of a sudden they went to wear masks. The concept of a mask is good, but it also does...you’re constantly touching it, you’re touching your face, you’re touching plates. There are people that don’t think masks are good.

Goes without saying at this point, obviously, but this kind of nonsense would get him removed from my neighborhood civic association. Truly unbelievable.

ABC/WAPO out with two polls this AM.

Wisc- Biden +7 LV
Minn- Biden +16 LV

Hmmm.

It is odd that Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are trending much more favorably for Biden than PA.

If Biden loses PA, he will need to hold NV, win AZ (which seems more than possible), and win one of ME 2 or NE 1.

https://www.270towin.com/maps/Vo0rP.png

CalvinBall wrote:It is odd that Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are trending much more favorably for Biden than PA.

If Biden loses PA, he will need to hold NV, win AZ (which seems more than possible), and win one of ME 2 or NE 1.

https://www.270towin.com/maps/Vo0rP.png

i have zero evidence for this but the urban/rural makeup of PA is a bit different than those two states that i wonder if, while correlated, they dont really poll similarly.

traderdave wrote:By any objective measure ... There were a couple of strong moments. Obviously there is no chance in hell I am voting for Trump but ... most definitely thought he was the bees knees.

@TraderDave = silent majority

CalvinBall wrote:It is odd that Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are trending much more favorably for Biden than PA.

If Biden loses PA, he will need to hold NV, win AZ (which seems more than possible), and win one of ME 2 or NE 1.

https://www.270towin.com/maps/Vo0rP.png

Anyone fearful of a Trump victory needs to merely look at that map to realize it is highly likely that Biden will win.

I mean, which of those blue states do you guys really think Trump is going to turn red in the next 48 days?

sounds familiar

JUburton wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:It is odd that Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are trending much more favorably for Biden than PA.

If Biden loses PA, he will need to hold NV, win AZ (which seems more than possible), and win one of ME 2 or NE 1.

https://www.270towin.com/maps/Vo0rP.png

i have zero evidence for this but the urban/rural makeup of PA is a bit different than those two states that i wonder if, while correlated, they dont really poll similarly.

It is odd if you look at numbers. Knowing people I'm not at all surprised.

jamiethekiller wrote:sounds familiar

yeah, everyone from JUburton to david plouffe thought PA was no longer a swing state after being decidedly blue in 2008 and 2012. turns out it was decidedly obama blue.

@realDonaldTrump: Great News: BIG TEN FOOTBALL IS BACK. All teams to participate. Thank you to the players, coaches, parents, and all school representatives. Have a FANTASTIC SEASON! It is my great honor to have helped!!!

heyeaglefn wrote:@realDonaldTrump: Great News: BIG TEN FOOTBALL IS BACK. All teams to participate. Thank you to the players, coaches, parents, and all school representatives. Have a FANTASTIC SEASON! It is my great honor to have helped!!!

What exactly did he do to help?

jamiethekiller wrote:sounds familiar

2016 was an outlier election.

Biden is not Hillary.

Don't know how much louder I can beat that drum.

JUburton wrote:

jamiethekiller wrote:sounds familiar

yeah, everyone from JUburton to david plouffe thought PA was no longer a swing state after being decidedly blue in 2008 and 2012. turns out it was decidedly obama blue.

It was also decidedly Kerry, Gore, and Clinton blue.

Hell, I am approaching 40 and the last time, prior to 2016, that PA was a "red state" I was a wee baby. Based on my own life experience I certainly considered PA a solid blue state in terms of presidential elections, as I believe the vast majority of the electorate did as well.

Regardless of who wins PA in 2020, I am convinced it will swing back to being reliably blue when Don the Con is no longer on the ballot.

The Sarge wrote:

heyeaglefn wrote:@realDonaldTrump: Great News: BIG TEN FOOTBALL IS BACK. All teams to participate. Thank you to the players, coaches, parents, and all school representatives. Have a FANTASTIC SEASON! It is my great honor to have helped!!!

What exactly did he do to help?

Nothing. He is grasping at straws and praying that this will qualify as an "October surprise."

06hawkalum wrote:

jamiethekiller wrote:sounds familiar

2016 was an outlier election.

Biden is not Hillary.

Don't know how much louder I can beat that drum.

but you didn't even use all caps

If there’s a tightening of the polls like there was in 2016 maybe it will change but right now Biden seems likely to win pa. Doesn’t mean he will.

This guy from ABC News says that on balance it was a good event for Trump:

Annoying Trump voice loop as he talks about how the economy is better under the dems (with backup fact graphs)