U.S. Presidential debate

Perhaps JD Vance regrets cat lady remarks.

(Cartoon from The Economist)

An interesting fact check:

www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/politics/video/fact-check-trump-harris-debate-abc-news-digvid

She did talk about help for small business and other things though.
I watched it all too.

If there were "waiverers" she was more convincing. 🤞

biglouis

Being a nightowl I stayed up to watch the debate.

Trump came across as a nutter (as usual) with his assertions about migrants eating pets and babies being executed. His stance on abortion alone would turn me off, childfree as I am. No man tells a woman what to do with her body.

Trump lost it for me when he made Obama produce his birth certificate and then went on to suggest it was fake. All the remarks about race will win him no favours with the US Black community.

I would like to have heard more about Kamala's actual policies. I feel she missed a trick there. However she won the debate for me.

biglouis Being a nightowl I stayed up to watch the debate.

I would like to have heard more about Kamala's actual policies. I feel she missed a trick there. However she won the debate for me.

We watched. She did well baiting him. She was calm and composed. The double screen did her favours - she smiled whilst eye rolling.

I'd wanted to hear her policies, however I worked out that she couldn't risk being painted as a lefty green socialist - so she just smiled and replied with her "my values have never changed" non answer.

Luckygirl3

I am burying my head in the sand and avoiding all of it! - it is just too grim.

It is very grim. The worst of it is that however obvious it may seem to us that Trump is unfit to run a parish council, let alone be president of the USA, there is still this small but incredibly important group of undecideds who, because of where they live, could put him into power.
It is terrifying because this isn't a normal election. Our last general election was, when all was said and done, a choice between parties led by two reasonably competent, sane people with no desire to overthrow democracy. This one is very different - it's a contest between one sane, reasonably competent - or competent enough - individual and a man who is more than just mad, he is bad and dangerous to the whole world. He does not like democracy. He does not understand democracy. He admires scumbags like Putin and Orban. He only agrees with election results that favour him. He is a menace to the free world.

Frankly, the very possibility of a Trump presidency should worry all of us, maybe apart from Putin and Netanyahu of course. I reserve my disgust for the Republican party, rather than Trump himself though, because they know he is dangerous, mentally unstable, convicted felon, sexual abuser etc., etc., but because they consider him the most likely of their field of candidates to win, they have backed him. Shame on them.

I don't even know much about Harris' policies, but I would back her, if I had the vote there, simply as the not Trump candidate.

I am burying my head in the sand and avoiding all of it! - it is just too grim.

Casdon

RosiesMaw2

I find it incredible - if a sign of the sad times we live on - that the opinion of a pop singer (Taylor Swift) should matter so much to the US electorate.
Did Elvis (than whom none is greater) ever express an opinion?
Bing Crosby? Frank Sinatra?
Or closer to home , Gracie Fields or Vera Lynn?
I think entertainers should stick to entertaining, sportspeople to sport and politicians work a bit harder at being any good at what they claim to be able to do.

Trump politicised Taylor Swift though by claiming she supported him, when she hadn’t previously said anything to indicate who she supported in this race..I think it serves him right, because she is hugely influential,

Exacly this! Taylor Swift had to do something.

RosiesMaw2

I find it incredible - if a sign of the sad times we live on - that the opinion of a pop singer (Taylor Swift) should matter so much to the US electorate.
Did Elvis (than whom none is greater) ever express an opinion?
Bing Crosby? Frank Sinatra?
Or closer to home , Gracie Fields or Vera Lynn?
I think entertainers should stick to entertaining, sportspeople to sport and politicians work a bit harder at being any good at what they claim to be able to do.

Elvis - no
Bing Crosby - yes, very much so - campaigned for the Republicans
Frank Sinatra - a proud Democrat until early 70s then switched publicly to support the Republicans
Vera Lynn - absolutely not, in fact she took the BNP to court for using her songs

biglouis

Being a nightowl I stayed up to watch the debate.

Trump came across as a nutter (as usual) with his assertions about migrants eating pets and babies being executed. His stance on abortion alone would turn me off, childfree as I am. No man tells a woman what to do with her body.

Trump lost it for me when he made Obama produce his birth certificate and then went on to suggest it was fake. All the remarks about race will win him no favours with the US Black community.

I would like to have heard more about Kamala's actual policies. I feel she missed a trick there. However she won the debate for me.

Interesting to read a post from someone who watched in BigLouis, like most, I am basing my opinion on snatched reports and clips. Trump is on the back foot, I think, and will get increasingly desperate, and nasty, as he does.

Gas prices could perhaps impact the US election. Quite odd.

US gasoline prices set to fall under $3/gallon as election nears
Reuters
Shariq Khan
September 12, 2024 at 6:04 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. motorists should see gasoline prices fall below $3 a gallon for the first time in over three years as soon as next month, shortly before they go to vote in November's presidential election, analysts said this week.

Softer gasoline prices, resulting largely from weaker fuel demand and sliding oil prices, are a relief for consumers who have struggled with record high fuel costs that have stoked inflation. Lower prices could also help Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats fight off sharp criticism from Republicans over pain at the pump.

As of Wednesday, the national average price for regular gasoline stood at $3.25 a gallon, down 19 cents from a month ago and 58 cents from a year ago, according to data from motorist association AAA.

The average should break below $3 a gallon by late October, if not sooner, with summer driving season over and retailers starting to sell cheaper winter-grade fuel in the weeks ahead, said Patrick De Haan, analyst at GasBuddy.com. In North Carolina, considered a swing state in the Nov. 5 presidential election, pump prices were already below $3 on Wednesday.

"Americans will definitely remember the price they see when they drive into polling stations, so this is definitely good news for Harris in her campaign for president against Republican Donald Trump," De Haan said.

Studies by the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, among others, show U.S. presidential approval ratings are inversely tied to gasoline prices. Therefore falling prices should lift Democrats in this election cycle, said John LaForge, head of real asset strategy at the investment advisory firm.

nanna8

Well I think we all seem to be in agreement about the candidates for once. Hallelujah. Rare occasion. 🥂

Unusually I'm going to quote The Telegraph Sept 9th (just before the big debate)

"Trump a ‘danger to US security’, say generals ahead of Harris debate
Ten former top military chiefs publish letter calling the vice-president the only candidate ‘fit to serve’ in the country’s highest office"

On the 8th Sept Politico ran a story and I quote

"Former President Donald Trump is facing backlash over his comments about veterans. Again.

Trump said Thursday that the country’s top civilian honor was “much better” than its top military honor, because the service members who receive the latter are “in very bad shape” or “dead” —

the latest in a yearslong pattern of inflammatory comments the former president has made about veterans as barbs over military service are being traded by both campaigns during a heated election.

I often quietly wonder what the military think of trigger happy Trump. His relationship with them has been uneasy.

However, much of the military/arms/information is in the hands of private contractors now in the USA who if course have their foot and chequebooks in the door of Washington politics.

He's got his sights set against the FBI, as they have some independence, and were of course involved in the Mar o laga documents investigation that was quashed by a pro Trump judicial officer.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz5rpdrxevro

🥂

Well I think we all seem to be in agreement about the candidates for once. Hallelujah. Rare occasion. 🥂

'contingency'

Yes, if he loses - he will insist it was another "Steal". God help America, and the rest of us in fact.

I would suspect that the Democrats are well aware of the mayhem he will try to cause and I would hope that they would have contingence plans to deal with it. In the last resort, if Harris wins, they will be in command of the security forces and the police. it gives them an advantage...

Witzend

What’s the betting that if Kamala wins, Trump will be off on another rabble-rousing rant that it was rigged?

... hmm

Does he have the intelligence to recognise his own weaknesses and failings - the ability for self-reflection that most normal people have to some extent or other?

I doubt it. His ego crowds out any rational or logical thought.

Yes, if he loses - he will insist it was another "Steal". God help America, and the rest of us in fact.

Wyllow, I do wonder what sensible Republican politicians and voters think about being represented by such a man.
However, Mr Trump does know he is the winner already, because, of course, if he isn't in the White House it will not be that he has lost, it will be because of vote rigging/ wrong counting/ falsification of results etc etc.

What’s the betting that if Kamala wins, Trump will be off on another rabble-rousing rant that it was rigged?

Oh yes I agree with that, the 'showbusiness' nature of politics in America is not healthy in my view.

Galaxy

Well the voting in Europe has been interesting lately so maybe not so different after all. I can completely understand how Trump has happened.

Yes - you make a point... one which I realised after I'd posted.

One of those, "oh, hang on a minute" moments.



It's not so much the politics though in America - it's the near-hysteria. I understand the principles of a political rally / convention, but Trump jubilantly 'dad-dancing', hundreds of balloons, manic waving of flags and placards, raised fists pumping, etc...

I don't know if you remember how decades ago, during the run-up to an election, BBC TV used to air a party political broadcast after the late evening news? One year, the Labour party chose Elgar's "Nimrod" for its background music, and I remember thinking then that it was a bit OTT, a bit dramatic. So, it could just be me not getting-with-the-programme.

Harris clearly won the debate but I'm not sure it will impact much on US voters' intentions. Despite all the noise about various issues it's the personal experience of the economy that will drive the vote.

Exactly Galaxy
We shouldn't be smug (or complacent) over here.

Well the voting in Europe has been interesting lately so maybe not so different after all. I can completely understand how Trump has happened.