Apologies for being a little late to the party, but does anyone watch the debates and actually have their mind changed on who to vote for/against. I don't know if these debates actually change anyone's mind or if it's just a ratings cash grab by the networks.

Not normally, but this last debate is having a pretty significant impact.

You could argue the 1st debate of '20 and the 1st debate of '24 were the most impactful debates in US history. Trump was so bad in '20 that fence sitters moved to Biden. Biden was so bad last Thursday that his party is in the process of replacing him.

When the candidates aren't going to be dead in the next ten to twenty years, no. When they are, you get the cluster that happened last week.

Make no mistake, anyone who gets to Biden's age has a greater chance of being just like he was on stage, even if "They're sharp as a tack for their age." In the real world, that just means they're the smartest of the ever-declining cognitive functioning geriatrics. You can't sugarcoat reality.

Debates matter. Squishy, low info voters are influenced by them. It's the only chance that people have to see candidates in an unscripted environment.

Not this time!

I heard 70 million Americans tuned in last week. Given how awful Biden was it absolutely had a big impact.

93MarineHorn said:

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Debates matter. Squishy, low info voters are influenced by them. It's the only chance that people have to see candidates in an unscripted environment.

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You keep using that word....</Inigo Montoya voice>

This was the most meaningful general debate in a very long time. Because of the squishes who saw how bad Biden really is.

Given the extremity of the modern left; most general debates are pretty worthless. A mere check box that your preferred candidate can operate rhetorically. The primary debates are much more interesting & useful.

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Debates matter. Squishy, low info voters are influenced by them. It's the only chance that people have to see candidates in an unscripted environment.

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The Trump - Biden debate just proved how valuable it is to see the candidates actually function without a script or teleprompter.

rocky the dog said:

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Debates matter. Squishy, low info voters are influenced by them. It's the only chance that people have to see candidates in an unscripted environment.

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You guys know what I mean. And giving Biden the questions in advance is pointless because he can't remember.

The debate may not sway many voters but the constant press coverage on how bad it was may do more damage than anything.

93MarineHorn said:

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rocky the dog said:

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Debates matter. Squishy, low info voters are influenced by them. It's the only chance that people have to see candidates in an unscripted environment.

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You guys know what I mean. And giving Biden the questions in advance is pointless because he can't remember.

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Nor accurately read teleprompters nor his note cards had he been allowed to use them.

Politicians are useless so by default debates are also useless. The sooner you recognize that they don't serve us and our well being the sooner we can get real people in power.

It's worthless if you don't win

Usually, not really.

But I like that format of no audience and cutting mikes. (Which, amazingly, helped Trump more than Biden).

Get Off My Lawn said:

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This was the most meaningful general debate in a very long time. Because of the squishes who saw how bad Biden really is.

Given the extremity of the modern left; most general debates are pretty worthless. A mere check box that your preferred candidate can operate rhetorically. The primary debates are much more interesting & useful.

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It also showed how the media has been covering for Biden for the last 4+ years. Biden didn't become a mumbling shell who cannot finish a sentence because he forgot the first part of the sentence overnight. To those that paid attention, Biden was mentally unfit for the office when he ran four years ago. He just declined so much that it is now impossible for the Democrats and the MSM to cover for him.

Now that he can no longer be controlled, the media and Democrats pounce on him like a pack of hyenas. The hypocrisy of the press is now so blatant that many believers have lost faith in their talking heads.

Well at least this time the lying lib media water carriers have been exposed for what they (and Biden) are.

TexAgs91 said:

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It's worthless if you don't win

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This. Kinda like the general election vote vs. the Electoral College.

They aren't really debates and I doubt many minds are changed. Low information voters aren't glued to the tv trying to decide who to vote for. But this debate was valuable, not so much for anything that was said relative to policy or what they have done or plan to do, but for the exposure of how addlebrained biden truly is. He could have been discussing the various flavors of ice cream and it would have revealed what many democrats and the media have tried to hide for years.

FJB is worthless, this clown debating has a value - free entertainment.

ColoAggie12 said:

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Apologies for being a little late to the party, but does anyone watch the debates and actually have their mind changed on who to vote for/against. I don't know if these debates actually change anyone's mind or if it's just a ratings cash grab by the networks.

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This has got to be a troll right?

posting about how insignificant a debate is

when it likely just drove the sitting President of the United States out of office and into not running for a second term.

which hasn't happened in literally 56 years.

Yes.

It's also 2024.

Sit them across from each other at a table with a mic for two hours and share it as a podcast.

ColoAggie12 said:

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Apologies for being a little late to the party, but does anyone watch the debates and actually have their mind changed on who to vote for/against. I don't know if these debates actually change anyone's mind or if it's just a ratings cash grab by the networks.

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Debates matter.

A sitting first term president will probably not seek a second elected term for the first time since LBJ because of the debate.

It is important to see the candidates without a teleprompter.

Biden had to answer for his failures and for not protecting the physical and financial security of Americans.

Biden appeared to be non compos mentis, and made excuses for his failures on immigration and inflation.

The debate exposed the Democrats and their friends in the media as liars.

The emperor has no clothes.

ColoAggie12 said:

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Apologies for being a little late to the party, but does anyone watch the debates and actually have their mind changed on who to vote for/against. I don't know if these debates actually change anyone's mind or if it's just a ratings cash grab by the networks.

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If it hadn't been for the debate, all of Biden's pre-Debate supporters would have believed the Cover-Up by the Democrat politicians, Academia, and the Media that Biden was fine. So yes, this particular debate was Huge!

Carl Bernstein knew 6 - 12 months ago and sat on his story about Biden's mental decline until after the Debate. Oh, Carl, the Cover-Up is the Worst Scandal Since WATERGATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

93MarineHorn said:

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You could argue the 1st debate of '20 and the 1st debate of '24 were the most impactful debates in US history. Trump was so bad in '20 that fence sitters moved to Biden. Biden was so bad last Thursday that his party is in the process of replacing him.

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100% concur. And I'd add that the 2 debates in 2016 opened a lot of people's eyes to how smug and condescending Hilary was of Trump (and pretty much everyone else) and he scored a huge tag when she said something about thank God he's not in charge of the courts and Trump quipped "because you'd be in jail."

The polls showed he closed several points of popular opinion on those 2 dates.

Trump self-sabotaged or whatever in the first debate of 2020, and cost himself a second consecutive term, that would have ended Biden forever.

I still can't believe the Democrats didn't realized that by forcing his mike to cut off in the first debate of 2024, they were giving him a huge advantage of eradicating 75% of the dumb stuff he just can't help saying.

It's like on The Office where Pam wouldn't transfer people to Michael because she knew his first line was going to be stupid, so she would let him do the dumb line, say "still me", then he'd think of something better for the actual important person.

" Are the debates worthless?"

Assuming it doesn't make you sick to your stomach that the President of the United States is going to be chosen from a pair of mentally ill candidates, the debates make for great comic relief.

Buck Turgidson said:

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Not normally, but this last debate is having a pretty significant impact.

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I would typically say that, but the last one was "PRICELESS"