I feel like this is a smart move by Donald because we’re still in this fugue state where we’re almost certain Kamala is the nominee but we’re not even sure, and the DNC is literally 3 weeks away with the actual election fast approaching lmao. Nobody has seen Kamala on the campaign trail, people barely know her and the debate would be giving her added publicity.

On the other hand it might be a good thing for her, noone knows her so she’s just some generic Dem candidate vs bigbad baby that you can just VoteBlue for

  • jack [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Retreating from debates is definitely the right move for him. Kamala is evil but her brain is functional and she’s a perfectly competent debater (former prosecutor and all). It may have been overshadowed by Biden’s on-stage brain death, but Trump’s brain is also only operating at about 20% capacity on a good day. He would’ve looked like a mess.

    • LanyrdSkynrd [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      American elections are won and lost on turnout, and the vibes-based voters are the most likely to stay at home. All those people who said the main reason they didn’t approve of Biden because of his age will vote for Kamala as long as she doesn’t fuck it up. Plus there are a lot of libs that are currently convincing themselves Kamala will be better policy wise, anything she says will make things worse.

      My opinion is that to win, all Kamala has to do is not be Biden. Go hide and say nothing. She’s not going to do anything in a debate with Trump that’s going to win votes, but she could do something to fuck it up.

    • Formerlyfarman [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      People keep saying this, but I remember her sounding as bad as the other 2. Either because she is always high as fuck or a particularly bad case of long covid. Being a successful prosecutor does not mean you have the debating skills of Cicero, it mean the states machinery is working to fuck over some random kid and you take credit for it.

      • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        Seriously, we already saw her in debates.

        Her only moment that broke through was when she called Biden a racist, and now there’s a video clip of her saying that nothing she says in debates actually means anything while laughing.

    • lil_tank [any, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      Trump’s brain is also only operating at about 20% capacity on a good day.

      Doesn’t really matter since his entire aesthetic is to act and talk using the least possible brain power lol

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    The weirdest thing about Kamala is that in the context of like, cross examining (see her in Senate hearings for examples of this) she’s pretty competent, she stays on topic, she sounds normal and good at her job. When she’s talking off the cuff she sounds like a crazy person. I remember her dunking on Biden pretty hard in the 2020 debates, so maybe she would be able to bring that kind of cross-examining lawyer vibe to a Trump debate. She could also just lose the plot entirely and laugh awkwardly while avoiding direct questions.

  • Owl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    It’s probably a strategic maneuver, but I hope it’s actually because he’s taking a turn for the worse, and the republicans are also going to have to awkwardly shuffle him off for some random candidate. It would be so funny.

  • ScrubsFloorsInHyrule [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Rant time. Every time I turn on npr I want to smash my head through the windshield. Listening to that station is self harm. People were calling in to talk about how they were excited about the kamala pick and haven’t been this energized since Obama. Apparently it’s so ironic that she would be able to beat Trump after him bragging about grabbing women. Apparently Biden is strong, wise, and looking out for the nation for knowing when to step down.

    No talk about continuing business as usual in Gaza. No talk about her policies as a prosecutor. No talk of improving material conditions. Pure liberal idealism. Don’t look at a single thing she’s doing or even said she’ll do. Absolutely manifesting good vibes only.

    • rootsbreadandmakka [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      I want to ask these people if they remember 4 years ago when they were all crying tears of joy at Biden’s inauguration. I don’t think they were necessarily excited to vote for him, but after the inauguration they were all giving us that teary-eyed “I haven’t felt this way about our country since Obama” and “We finally have a country again.” How did that work out?

      While we’re at it I ALSO want to ask these people if they remember 8 years ago when they were all fawning over JD Vance’s book as the skeleton key that explains the rise of Trump

    • LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      The terrible candidate that polled 6th in her home state before dropping out before primaries began is a historical world figure

      kamala-coconut-tree

      History began yesterday, and we were retroactively correct about it

      liberalism

      I hate those fuckers so goddamn much

      • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to work. People like to support someone other people support. Most western politicians are off-putting losers and whether one of them is popular or not depends more on who is favoured by the consent manufacturing machine than on their individual merits.

    • __ghost__@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      As much as I agree with you, targeted media’s purpose is getting people to vote in their favor. Given the condition of the average American political environment where less than half of the eligible population actually votes, the vibes maintain tiny attention spans. The game fucking sucks

  • D61 [any]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    If Kamala/staff had any sense, they could just keep talking about how scared Trump is to debate her. Fill up the news cycles with Trump losing his shit and her just laughing at his Freedom Social posts. She’d be able to blunt a bit of the negative press for being a younger pro-genocide candidate.

  • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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    4 months ago

    If the dems had any political awareness, they would push this hard, make a bunch of attacks on Trump saying he is too scared to debate.

    But of course, they won’t do anything about this at all, and the dem establishment will probably never even mention it at any point.

  • Torenico [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    the only positive thing about presidential debates is that both war criminals are in the same place and one minecraft TNT block should do

    • Speaker [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      Fake gamer detected! The blast radius of a TNT block would never vaporize both candidates! Now let me show you the 40000 block redstone contraption I’ve constructed that will, given time, slowly push a block of cobblestone into each candidate’s hitbox and trigger a glitch causing a small amount of fall damage. In 5 or 6 hours, they’re cooked, bay-bee!

    • ThisMachinePostsHog [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      It’s a classic weasel heel bit to talk a big game and then slink away from a match when the opponent shows they want the smoke. “You actually thought I would give you a match against me on cable TV? Here in Trailer Trash Town, Tennessee?? Naw, these people don’t deserve to see that!”

  • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Man, it’s so depressing over in the lib verse… Top comments are All about how they need to steel themselves against the Harris negativity sure to come, that all negativity is astroturf, to have faith and vote the fascism away!

    I just can’t, my peeps

    • hypercracker@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      They have a brief window where leftists haven’t consolidated critiques of their chosen one so they’re trying to spend that time inoculating people. I saw someone on mastodon try to be all “watch out for the VP critique - it’s the next thing people are going to try to use to justify not voting for her” just nakedly trying to get out ahead of a Josh Shapiro pick.

  • geese_feces [comrade/them, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    rfk is polling high enough and is on the ballot in enough states now that he meets the eligibility criteria for the next debate

    kamala should announce that she’ll debate rfk if trump doesn’t show up, i bet trump would change his mind and join in then