Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Elegiac]

Polls are currently....unreliable.

They aren't, y'all just continue to repeat nonsense talking points from 2016 that don't accurately portray what the polling during that election actually looked like.

[Monster Hunter]

Biden easing up isn't a mistake.

Everyone else easing up would be. I'm guessing The Lincoln Project and other attack ad Super-PACs won't stop at all. But Biden removing attack ads for the time being is smart, compassionate, etc.

There's an old saying.

Give them enough rope and they will hang them selves.

All Biden has to do is look like the most stable and mature candidate and the American center will flip, that will be enough to secure victory.

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They aren't, y'all just continue to repeat nonsense talking points from 2016 that don't accurately portray what the polling during that election actually looked like.

You did see the UK polls for the last election right ?

Mystic meg had better predictions.

[Elegiac]

You did see the UK polls for the last election right ?

Yes. When you break them down per constituency the results were within margin of error - what the discrepancy between polling and outcomes is indicative of is how undemocratic the UK's electoral system actually is, not that polling has suddenly stopped working.

Same thing with 2016. People just don't know how to read polls.

[Bodakane]

I wouldn't say it "somehow shows", I would argue that it continues to enforce the point that Biden is a better candidate, in every capacity. The compassion, while fake towards Trump, is genuine towards the rest of the world. It's showing a stark contrast between the two candidates, and that is not fake.

We can just agree to disagree on the second point. I see it as taking the high road, knowing all along that the "low" road will continue to be traveled by other folks. To me, that's both smart and strategic - once again showing the contrast between the two candidates.

Perhaps the question you're getting at is whether that contrast is still necessary at this point. I would say it is, and should continue to be made, because the world needs to see that we are all not Hitler's Trump's Germany United States.

Its either means nothing because it is fake compassion or it means something because it isn;t fake. It cannot be both but your argument is essentially trying to make the case that it is both.

The best thing Biden can do is not just beat Trump but crush him into a powder. It is the only way to prevent this kind of thing in the future. Hillary took the high road and Trump still painted her in the low road light that she still cannot get out from under. People still think she is more or equally corrupt as Trump.

Trump plays by no rules and it makes literally no sense to for us to play by made up ones like no negative attack ads for 2 weeks = fake compassion that we all are pretending isn't fake.

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There's an old saying.

Give them enough rope and they will hang them selves.

All Biden has to do is look like the most stable and mature candidate and the American center will flip, that will be enough to secure victory.

If he continued with attack ads while Trump is in quarantine, would Biden not look like the most stable and mature candidate?

[cubby]

There's an old saying.

Give them enough rope and they will hang them selves.

All Biden has to do is look like the most stable and mature candidate and the American center will flip, that will be enough to secure victory.

I couldn't agree more. Biden taking the high road only benefits him and his campaign.

[Zaydin]

Reposting this: Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, has tested positive for COVID-19.

[Monster Hunter]

No one in their right mind should want anyone dead... even Trump...

I make certain exceptions for particularly evil individuals, like the guy who raped a baby here in the UK. Or the dude who pushed a French child of the tate to "get famous"

99% of the time I'm anti death penalty, but for select people like them....well campaigning for there lives isn't a hill I'm willing to die on.

[Draco-Onis]

Reposting this: Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, has tested positive for COVID-19.

You know it could be patient zero is Trump himself not Hicks, it makes no sense that he would need to go to the hospital after one day of catching it.

[Monster Hunter]

Yes. When you break them down per constituency the results were within margin of error - what the discrepancy between polling and outcomes is indicative of is how undemocratic the UK's electoral system actually is, not that polling has suddenly stopped working.

Same thing with 2016. People just don't know how to read polls.

First past the post is God awful and fucks with polls.

But same kinda goes for youre weird electoral college stuff.

[Elegiac]

First past the post is God awful and fucks with polls.

But same kinda goes for youre weird electoral college stuff.

That's nice, will you drop the "polling doesn't work" line, because FPTP has been accounted for in polling in the US since polling started?

[Bodakane]

I couldn't agree more. Biden taking the high road only benefits him and his campaign.

I'll ask you then since you agree....

If he continued with attack ads while Trump is in quarantine, would Biden not look like the most stable and mature candidate?

If you say no, then that means what I said earlier, running the attack ads during the two week quarantine is just as bad as everything Trump has done.
If you say yes, then there's no reason to not run them.

[Monster Hunter]

Its either means nothing because it is fake compassion or it means something because it isn;t fake. It cannot be both but your argument is essentially trying to make the case that it is both.

The best thing Biden can do is not just beat Trump but crush him into a powder. It is the only way to prevent this kind of thing in the future. Hillary took the high road and Trump still painted her in the low road light that she still cannot get out from under. People still think she is more or equally corrupt as Trump.

Trump plays by no rules and it makes literally no sense to for us to play by made up ones like no negative attack ads for 2 weeks = fake compassion that we all are pretending isn't fake.

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If he continued with attack ads while Trump is in quarantine, would Biden not look like the most stable and mature candidate?

Not really, fighting in the mud is the right wings home turf.

Time and money is better served drumming home what the dems can offer the every day worker.

[cubby]

Its either means nothing because it is fake compassion or it means something because it isn;t fake. It cannot be both but your argument is essentially trying to make the case that it is both.

The best thing Biden can do is not just beat Trump but crush him into a powder. It is the only way to prevent this kind of thing in the future. Hillary took the high road and Trump still painted her in the low road light that she still cannot get out from under. People still think she is more or equally corrupt as Trump.

Trump plays by no rules and it makes literally no sense to for us to play by made up ones like no negative attack ads for 2 weeks = fake compassion that we all are pretending isn't fake.

It's not a binary situation. The play by Biden can have several effects on different audiences. You're trying to argue that they are mutually exclusive, and they are not. It can, in fact, be both.

Fake compassion because people know exactly how Biden feels about Trump. But making the compassionate statement shows Biden can be the better man, so to speak. So one statement can have multiple meanings, essentially for your purposes, "both" is possible.

I agree that's the best thing Biden can do. And I think he's doing it by personally pulling back but [hopefully] overall not, assuming other Super-PAC attack ads continue. Hillary had her own problems, trying to compare the two isn't even worth it at this point.

To me and many others (including the entire Biden campaign team) it does make sense. But we don't have to agree here - we certainly haven't in other cases.

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Not really, fighting in the mid is the right wings home turf.

Time and money is better served drumming home what the dems can offer the every day worker.

Agreed - offering positive reasons to vote Biden right now is better than trashing Trump while he's literally hospitalized. Plus, Trump will still be getting trashed by other sources.

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I'll ask you then since you agree....

If he continued with attack ads while Trump is in quarantine, would Biden not look like the most stable and mature candidate?

If you say no, then that means what I said earlier, running the attack ads during the two week quarantine is just as bad as everything Trump has done.
If you say yes, then there's no reason to not run them.

I don't accept your answers as the only choices. Your logic isn't sound in forming the above - so I'll pass on answering, and stick with my longer explanation to you directly above (or where ever it ended up in here, lol).

But essentially, Biden can do the "both" you claim isn't possible. Fake sincerity because we all know Biden hates Trump. But "real" sincerity because he shows he's capable of being the better man, taking the higher road, etc.

[Monster Hunter]

I couldn't agree more. Biden taking the high road only benefits him and his campaign.

Trumps in the shit, the overwhelming opinion of the last debate was it was a shit show and it was because of trump.

Now he's got covid showing his bullshit about the illness and masks is just that.

All that needs to happen is let him dig his own grave like he was earlier in the year with the nearly starting ww3 and fucking up covid response without anything like chop or the riots coming along to give him a distraction.

All it takes now is to just keep the pressure on, beat the drum of his faliurs and repeat over and over what the dems offer to the majority demographics and this shit is in the bag.

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That's nice, will you drop the "polling doesn't work" line, because FPTP has been accounted for in polling in the US since polling started?

But you don't account for electoral college shenanigans like last time.

You get nothing anyway from trusting polls,

[Elegiac]

But you don't account for electoral college shenanigans like last time.

Again: they did. You're confusing general ballot polling, which favored a Clinton victory, with state level polling which was within margin of error.

And I will remind you that Clinton did in fact win more votes on the general ballot; so again, the polling bore out. You just don't know how to read them.

You get nothing anyway from trusting polls,

You get quite a bit when you actually understand how they work.

[cubby]

Trumps in the shit, the overwhelming opinion of the last debate was it was a shit show and it was because of trump.

Now he's got covid showing his bullshit about the illness and masks is just that.

All that needs to happen is let him dig his own grave like he was earlier in the year with the nearly starting ww3 and fucking up covid response without anything like chop or the riots coming along to give him a distraction.

All it takes now is to just keep the pressure on, beat the drum of his faliurs and repeat over and over what the dems offer to the majority demographics and this shit is in the bag.,

Agreed. This entire election is a referendum on Trump, and he continues to be his own worst enemy. Shit show debate performance, and no he personally contracted a "hoax".

Keep the pressure on, let Biden take the high road and lament what he'll do for the country, and let the Super-PACs pour on the ineptitude of Trump and his entire retinue of beliefs.

[Edge-]

GUYS WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED. I WENT AWAY FOR A FEW HOURS AND IT SOUNDS LIKE EVERYONE HAS COVID NOW.

Seriously, is there a running list of new confirmed infections somewhere? I was having a hard enough time keeping track by like 6, and 4 hours later it's ballooned.

I hope they all pull through, but for a great many of them (some of the journos for example) I can't help but feel like there's some sense of karma there.

[Elegiac]

GUYS WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED. I WENT AWAY FOR A FEW HOURS AND IT SOUNDS LIKE EVERYONE HAS COVID NOW.

Seriously, is there a running list of new confirmed infections somewhere? I was having a hard enough time keeping track by like 6, and 4 hours later it's ballooned.

I hope they all pull through, but for a great many of them (some of the journos for example) I can't help but feel like there's some sense of karma there.

It's looking increasingly like the spreader event may actually have been....wait for it...

The WH debate prep room.

Here's the list, per Dana Basch:

Trump: Positive
Kellywise: Positive
Bill Stepien: Positive
Hope Hicks: Positive
Chris Christie: Positive
Rudy Giuliani: TBD
Jason Miller: TBD
Stephen Miller: TBD

[PhaelixWW]

GUYS WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED. I WENT AWAY FOR A FEW HOURS AND IT SOUNDS LIKE EVERYONE HAS COVID NOW.

Seriously, is there a running list of new confirmed infections somewhere? I was having a hard enough time keeping track by like 6, and 4 hours later it's ballooned.

I hope they all pull through, but for a great many of them (some of the journos for example) I can't help but feel like there's some sense of karma there.

This is a good start:

Politico: Where Trump went (and who he was with) leading up to his coronavirus diagnosis

[Elegiac]

This is a good start:

Politico: Where Trump went (and who he was with) leading up to his coronavirus diagnosis

That feel when the press is probably doing more comprehensive contact tracing than the White House.