Anyone remember Obama's first debate in 2012?

[democrattotheend]

From what I remember, Obama was pretty terrible in the first debate in 2012 and everyone was freaking out. Ironically, Biden's debate with Paul Ryan a week later helped stop the bleeding, and Obama did much better in the 2nd and 3rd debate and went on to be re-elected.

Similar story in 2004 - W was terrible in the first debate against Kerry. In fact, Karl Rove even warned David Axelrod prior to the first debate about the phenomenon of incumbent presidents struggling with the first debate because they are more challenged than they have been in 4 years. Bush did somewhat better in the other debates (although he was never a strong debater) and went on to - whatever you call winning a second term when you didn't actually win the first.

The 1984 presidential debates happened when I was less than a year old, so I don't remember them obviously, but from what I learned in my poly sci classes I believe Reagan also did really poorly in the first debate and people raised questions about his age and it was the one time it looked like Mondale had a shot. We know how that election turned out.

TBH, I don't feel great about Biden's chances of winning reelection at the moment, but not because of one bad first debate, which is pretty much par for the course in recent history. And the fact that it's during the summer so long before the election helps mitigate any damage, because most people who are not already committed to a candidate are not paying attention yet. I'm way more concerned about Biden's approval rating, the inherent electoral college disadvantage, the fact that Republican legislatures have made it harder to vote in many swing states since 2020, and the overall mood of the country than I am about tonight's debate.

[Celerity]

2. you have been all over the board pushing the same anti-Biden line, and yet you cannot even spell Newsom's name correctly

[LeftInTX]

3. You can watch it here. Obama appears to be doing OK. He's just not as sharp as he usually was/

&ab_channel=PBSNewsHour

And at least you can hear Obama etc.

Some people were like, "Where's my Obama?" Either way, I think he addressed it due to lack of debate prep.

In this case, Joe's team knew about issues with his voice for several years. We've seen several bad press conferences, where we couldn't hear Joe. I kinda blame this on Joe's communications team. He should have had the proper mike. They know he's prone to stuttering, which I heard numerous times tonight. I don't believe any of that was part of the prep process. Joe could have said less more by simply "saying less". He could have given shorter answers.

[Dem4life1234]

4. But

Wasn't that when he lost his grandma though?

[Self Esteem]

5. No. His grandma died like a day before the election.

[callous taoboy]

6. I watched that one.

I thought Romney won that one handily. I went to bed depressed. I just watched part of the clip above from that debate, and one thing that struck me was how much I miss the media portrayal of presidential debates as serious matters. Jim Lehrer was one of the best. I did not watch last night’s debate, but I did just now watch Jon Stewart’s analysis of it and I was struck by how CNN’s intro / set-up was more befitting of a professional sporting event, complete with Super Bowl music in the background, as though either that’s what they have to do now to grab the attention of today’s audience, or that’s how cynical the media is about today’s political climate. It’s as though they realize how much is riding on this election, but don’t necessarily care so much, while also acknowledging that one of the candidates is about as serious as a professional wrestler. But, maybe that was just the intro and the moderators came off as more serious during the debate. Hopefully Joe, like Obama did in his second debate with Romney, will trounce the orange buffoon.