What did you think of the points made and the discussion during the final presidential debate, Thursday October 22?

Biden demolished Trump on Covid, but Biden acted like a republican when it came to the issue of being hawkish on North Korea. Also, the line “I support privatized healthcare” was awful. It’s hilarious that when Trumps claims, “Biden wants to give you healthcare!”, Biden has to argue against universal healthcare. It’s insane that we have two candidates arguing against Medicare for all during a freaking pandemic, while every other modern country has a version of a single payer system.

Overall though I still think Biden won because Trump kept dodging the questions.

Didn’t watch it.

I didn’t watch it. Did anyone’s mic get muted?

I really don’t think debates need to have a ‘winner’. What we are wanting is to hear about each position, and what each position thinks of the other position.

In this regard, this was the best debate of all, as we heard both positions cogently and clearly, even lies and facts taken into account.

@Yellowdog: I agree with you about debates not needing to have a winner. The winner question is one posed on many headlines today. I know in debates in schools, there’s a winner and a loser.

It was a better debate this time. Not quite as childish.

I noticed that Trump still can’t answer the questions about what his plan for healthcare will be once he gets rid of ACA. He says he will protect pre-existing conditions. Let’s say he will, I am assuming from his non-answer outside of that that the rest of it he will be throwing to the wolves.

It’s ridiculous that Trump says he will turn over his tax return to the American people soon. Does anyone believe that? Reminds me of the line told to mistresses, “I’m going to leave my wife soon.” Yeah, sure.

I thought Biden did pretty well defending that he is not radical left like Fox News and Trump want to frame him.

I think Trump sounded convincing that he has protected the country from North Korea. Whether it’s true or not, I see how a lot of people will think he deserves credit.

Biden calling Trump Lincoln was funny, and probably Trump taking issue with it will be defended by his supporters, but really it shows a lack of a sense of humor. That happened with Jeb Bush 4 years ago. He said something funny and the media tore him apart on it, and the criticism was stupid, but that was the nail in the coffin for him.

Trump should lose voters regarding how he handled covid, but I think Biden doesn’t come back hard enough with statistics and successes in other countries. Trump blames China, but Trump also said even China contained it within China. Biden should pounce on that. Why not say we could have contained it too.

I could go point by point, but I won’t. I think both candidates did pretty well. I think no minds were changed if people already knew who they wanted to vote for. How did undecided people react? I would love to know. I think if their one big fear is socialism and they think Trump mishandled covid, maybe they finally decided for Biden last night if they were unsure. I don’t think it changes the minds of Cubans and Venezuelans, but maybe some non-Hispanics in PA, OH, and MI. The undecideds who are worried about jobs and the economy, how do they see it after the debate? I have no idea.

No questions about the deficit! Unless, I missed it. Biden squeezes in a comment about printing money, which was good. He also addressed Governors having to balancing their budget, which was good, but probably missed by a lot of people.

They both did well in my opinion. Trump is better at simplifying his message. Most jellies probably feel frustrated by the lack of detail and information in Trump answers, but huge parts of the population respond to a simpler message where they fill in their own blanks.

@rockfan “Also, the line ‘I support privatized healthcare’ was awful.”

Trump’s goal is to splinter off the “Berniecrats” (a huge percent of the electorate) from voting for Biden. Biden playing right into Trump’s trap doesn’t help (chasing that tiny sliver of the electorate on the right that might switch sides).

I think Trump missed his opportunity though. He pretended to go populist Left of HRC in 2016, while remaining Right on culture and could have easily done so again in 2020. That would have won him the nomination.

He could have easily put up a Republican branded M4A bill forward (one he had no intention of passing) with some cash giveaways to a desperate electorate, and he would have crushed Biden in a landslide.

@gorllapaws Good points!

Trump pretending that he doesn’t own the last four years is ridiculous. I am hoping that Biden can be pushed on healthcare by the competent people he will bring in.

Is there anybody in America who was waiting for the last debate to make up their mind whom to vote for?

@gorillapaws I think Biden was trying to be honest about his own position on healthcare and trying to capture Florida and maybe some people who were planning to sit out voting altogether who usually vote Republican.

At this point I think Bernie people are unchangeable. They either already decided not to vote for either candidate or decided they will vote for Biden.

@JLeslie That makes sense.

Good that Biden admitted that he’s going to destroy the oil industry.

@JLeslie The largest constituency of voters in this country are people who don’t vote. There’s more of them than Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Enticing them with policy designed to finally do something to improve their lives is a lot more effective than telling them how great the private, employer-based healthcare they can’t afford is. I feel like some of you guys are living in this political electoral fantasy land where there’s this large pool of people in the middle that could go either way if only the Dems were conservative enough, meanwhile people on the left are totally giving up on the party and looking for other options.

This approach completely ignores desperate working-class voters on the right who would are receptive to a less self-righteous and “woke” populist left platform. E.g. Coal miners, farmers, industrial workers with outsourced jobs, etc.

The DNC’s love affair with globalism and supporting trade deals that have outsourced so many jobs was a complete betrayal of the working class. It’s a big part of why we had 4 years of Trump in the first place, and also why this election is even remotely close with such a terrible track record.

@gorillapaws I believe most people who don’t vote either are not interested in politics, are intimidated by the voting process and don’t understand how it works, or are reasonably content in their day to day life.

I was just in a meeting yesterday where a woman who became a citizen several years ago said that what she studied for her test didn’t teach her at all how voting works here in America. We assured her that most Americans aren’t taught it either. I happen to mention that I think many new citizens are overwhelmed by our ballots, and I think we should tell people they don’t have to vote for all categories, they can just vote for the president if they want. She chimed in again and said she had no idea. Many Americans who were born and raised here think if they they don’t vote for every category their ballot will be thrown out, so I think some of them don’t vote at all when they see a three page ballot. It’s not simple to get information on all of the judges and local officials and amendments on the ballot.

When I graduated from high school I did not know I needed to register to vote. If I was taught it in my government class in 7th grade I don’t remember it.

@JLeslie “I believe most people who don’t vote either are not interested in politics, are intimidated by the voting process and don’t understand how it works, or are reasonably content in their day to day life.”

How did you arrive at this conclusion?

This article goes into the details of the demographics of non-voters. It’s mostly the working poor with a disproportionately higher rate of young, non-white, and less-educated who are dissatisfied with both parties.

@gorillapaws Your article agrees with what I said. I think Latin Americans and Blacks are more likely to be intimidated and not know what to do to vote. I’m not sure my inlaws would have voted without me ordering their mail-in ballot. When they were living with me a couple of years go my FIL wanted to vote, so I took him to the polls, my MIL wasn’t with us in the car when it came up, but I told her I would take her too, and she didn’t bother. It was the interim election. He likely would not have vote if he was not with us. He would not have known where the polling place was and would not have found out. As much as he hates Trump he might not have voted without the mail-in ballot this time.

We told him we would explain the other things on the current ballot, but he asked if he could just vote for president, and we told him he could, and that was all he wanted to deal with. Most English speaking life long Americans have trouble getting information on all of the candidates and issues, and you think someone new to the country can decipher all of that who doesn’t read English well? The ballot was in Spanish, but seeking information on the candidates is in English. There is still a lot of illiteracy in Black communities, more high school drop out rates among Blacks also. Mexicans have an average education of 8th grade who come to the US. They often are not accustomed to spending hours pulling information and researching. It took me two hours to fill out my ballot completely. A lot of people I know vote the way the League of Women Voters suggests, I disagreed with them on 2 or 3 amendments this time.

White people with money vote to preserve their power and they have parents who helped them know how the system works. White middle class, some are content, some are sucked in by the fear mongering going on, some had very politically involved parents and so are they. Teenagers tend to be apathetic about a lot of things, and more worried about other things besides politics, especially if they are healthy, can pay their bills or still live with their parents. Young Hispanics have parents who often times cannot vote or never have. They don’t have an example in the home of what or how to do it. I hope my niece and nephew voted. They are in their 20’s, American, Their mom HATES Trump, so hopefully that motivated them enough, but I actually am not even sure their mom voted, but I assume she did.

I didn’t vote until I was 30. Why? I never watched politics, barely followed politics, until then. When Bush was running for some reason I got really nervous he could win and so I voted. See, there you go, I became nervous enough to vote.

You are very politically involved. I am not sure you understand or identify with the person who barely pays attention to politics, who doesn’t understand how politics affects our lives, or with being a new citizen with a language barrier and never having voted before.