3 Reasons Trump Lost the Final Presidential Debate

[brooklynite]

New York Magazine

Barring a polling error of historic magnitude, Trump needs to mount a comeback of unprecedented proportions in the campaign’s final weeks. To pull that off, the president (probably) needed Joe Biden to implode at the final 2020 presidential debate. The primary reason why Trump “lost” Thursday night is, thus, that Biden made it through the proceedings without forgetting his own name, promising to make his son Hunter ambassador to China, or ripping open his shirt to reveal a giant tattoo of his hero, Mao Zedong. To the contrary, the former vice-president gave an uncharacteristically crisp performance, looking and sounding healthier than the slightly raspy and disconcertingly red man he stood beside.

But Trump didn’t just lose because Biden neglected to self-destruct. The president also lost as a result of his own shortcomings. Namely:

1) Trump is too immersed in the Fox News Cinematic Universe to communicate clearly with people who live outside of it.
Donald Trump consumes conservative media like it’s his job. In early September, while presiding over a pandemic and devastating wildfire season, the president told reporters that his attorney general was about to prosecute his Deep State enemies — and substantiated this claim by attributing it to various Fox News programs that had watched over the previous 24 hours. “I watched Liz McDonald,” Trump said, “She’s fantastic. I watched Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night, Sean Hannity last night, Tucker last night, Laura. I watched Fox & Friends in the morning.”

2) Trump claimed ownership of some of the GOP’s least popular policies for no reason.
One of Trump’s few genuine strengths as a Republican politician has been his nose for the party’s most odious economic ideas. In 2016, he made a point of disavowing the GOP’s orthodoxy on health care, public investment in infrastructure, and — occasionally — taxes on the wealthy. But on Thursday night, the president went out of his way to signal his opposition to a $15 minimum wage (an idea that two-thirds of voters support), his desire to “terminate” Obamacare (a policy only 20 percent of voters support), and his burning hatred for wind power (a feeling 80 percent of Republicans cannot relate to).

3) The fact that Trump lacks anything resembling human empathy led him to defend his administration orphaning 545 immigrant children — by emphasizing how clean their facilities were on the day of a photo op.
This week, lawyers tasked with reuniting migrant families who were deliberately broken up by the Trump administration revealed that they cannot locate the parents of 545 immigrant children. Confronted with this fact in a public forum, a normal human being — or even, a sociopath with a rudimentary understanding of normal human thought patterns — would recognize that a demonstration of sadness (if not outright contrition) would be in order. But such recognition is beyond Trump. Instead of communicating his heartbreak at an unintended side effect of his efforts to enforce the border — and vowing to do everything in his power to ensure these families are brought back together — he said the following:

[dchill]

1. 4) He's a drug-addled, narcissistic idiot.

[gademocrat7]

2. He will always be an unrepentant criminal.

[TheBlackAdder]

3. I wiould say he's just a stupid dick, but that explanation handles most of it.

[Caliman73]

4. # 3 ",even a sociopath with a rudimentary understanding...normal human..."

FYI, sociopaths do not have a rudimentary understanding of human thought patterns. That is why they are labeled sociopaths. Now, if you are talking about psychopaths like Dennis Rader, Ted Bundy, even Edmund Kemper (who had his mother's severed head as a totem), they were able to approximate human emotions and thought processes until they could no longer hide their murders. Trump however, is a SOCIOPATH and yes I know the terms are now used interchangeably. Sociopaths (old definition) shared many of the same characteristics of a psychopath except one, emotional regulation. Psychopaths (some) are typically able to delay gratification and control their emotions, that is why they are able to plan their activities and hide their crimes. Sociopaths (old definition) are impulsive and lack the ability to control their emotions. Trump has been able to outrun his many problems because of his family's money. Without it, I guarantee he would have been in prison, or dead a long time ago.

Trump is a con man and can tap into people's "weaknesses" like trusting people in authority, our desire not to offend, our desire to believe in the good of others, etc... he reads it and exploits it. That is his talent. He is nothing special without his daddy's money. Not a self made man, nothing. Everything about Trump is a fake, manufactured and groomed by his dad and maintained by a series of smarter, ambitious, yes men.

[young_at_heart]

5. Can someone tell me why all Rep. senators and reps love him?

I know they don't really love him, except maybe Devin, Jim and Matt, but they all are in lock-step with every horrible move he makes. Does anyone besides me think there is something fundamentally wrong with these people who are our leaders? It's not normal behavior to be "the Borg"!

[SWBTATTReg]

6. trump lost too, way before he even agreed to do the debates. No one believes anything...

that trump says or does anymore, since more than likely, it's a lie and not truth by any stretch of the imagination.

What I'm wondering about (and not really terribly, I know that Mr. Biden and all will take care of this issue too in the upcoming weeks and months) is how they will muzzle trump afterwards (when Biden is president-elect).

Biden will have to ensure that he has a very on top of, competent press secretary, who's fast on their feet and not afraid to get their feet wet. After listening to trump nonstop over the last four years, it will be nice to have some competent people instead of lackeys who are truly incompetent and the only reason they are there in trump's admin. is how much they kissed trump's a&&.