Hasn’t it been clearly visibly true? At what point did he not seem like he had declined massively in any public appearance in the last 12 months?
Biden has good moments all the fucking time. I can’t think of a single one Trump has had.
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Dammit I can’t remember the exact joke, but the best trump joke in the past year was a fake truth that took a bit before it was debunked.
It’s been noticed by others too. SNL mocked trump for being demented two days ago.
I dunno. I haven’t really seen much of Trump in the last 12 months. (PS: Fuck you Elon for ruining Rupar bot)
I’m just pointing out that people have saying that same thing for years now. Just a quick search of the internets from 2017 has a bunch of stuff like this where people are saying “Trump used to be so articulate. He’s deteriorated so much.”
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Go watch all the video on Trump you can find for the previous 12 months and come back.
I’ve watched a fair amount and unless he’s challenged by a semi competent moderator or debate opponent, his schtick is the same as it ever was. Maybe he’s gotten somewhat worse at reading off the teleprompter, but expecting from him an unhinged performance that moves the needle when all the data suggests that it’s Biden who turns people off when he opens his mouth, yeah, it’s just not borne out empirically. Orange beats sleepy by 20 points on fitness/mental capacity in every poal and has been for almost half a year now.
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go back and watch the 2016 gop primary debates, that guy is 200x sharper than the trump we have now
No one is going to care if Brandon sits out the superbowl, there’s little upside and a real possibility that he could make some kind of gaffe.
This says more about polling in an era of polarization and alternate reality than anything else.
Objectively, Trump has declined significantly over the last decade. 40% of the country will never see it. The opposing 40% admits Biden has lost a step or two.
I’d argue Biden has declined more physically and Trump has declined more cognitively, but regardless, Dems are more honest about reality and Republicans live in an alternate reality.
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Polarization may be ~good enough to explain the sort of perpetual low approval ratings we’ve seen since the financial crisis, give or take, but I’m reasonably sure (but going by memory) that Biden is doing relatively disastrously on mental fitness for office no matter what segment of the electorate you ask, he’s almost certainly underwater with that with “independents”, but he’s also far lower than you’d like with his own voters. It surprised me too, but ‘fuck this guy is really just too old’ is an extreme obstacle no matter what the alternative is, on policy or the fitness of the other guy.
And of course, reality is up for grabs, we have been and firmly are in 2+2=5 territory here. Almost everything that is laughed at as absurd eventually comes back in a slightly less insane iteration and becomes as good as fact; we laugh when orange takes credit for the stock market a year out because businesses are anticipating his ascension, but I don’t laugh because most people already or soon are about to believe it.
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Biden needs to get in witness protection yesterday.
Truly wild the GOP is going to blow it on this immigration bill. They got everything imaginable, this deal will never be there again.
Hard to tell with Trump. He was stupid to begin with.
That’s my point, though. Democratic voters are in tune with reality, and Biden is really fucking old and probably not totally fit for office. We admit it. Trump is too, but his voters are not in tune with reality, so they don’t admit it.
That’s the issue with those polls.
I actually think he has a point here - but not businesses, his dumbass voters who probably control enough of the investible money to move markets somewhat.
Nobody in the GOP actually wants secure borders and to cut down on undocumented immigration. They want to be able to run against it! Same thing with abortion but they fucked up and caught the car there.
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Yeah, I see your points, but if you watched the Kornacki segment from Morning LOL on NBC recently for example, it’s straight up denial to think that Joe isn’t in deep deep shit according to current polling.
I think favorability polls and variations of them (fit to lead, etc) are completely useless right now. Election polls are somewhat indicative, but I think that the general public simply hasn’t paid attention to Trump in three years and forgets how crazy he was then and doesn’t know how batshit insane he has gone since then. Only once that’s become apparent will general election polls be valuable.
Biden’s a shitty candidate, and right now I’m not sure he’d outpoll a turd sandwich. But the closer people get to actually have to take a bite, and the more closely they inspect the turd sandwich, the better Old Joe is going to look.
Best I can tell…
Good:
- 5% increase in visas over the next decade (way too little, but an increase is good)
- Faster processing of asylum claims
- Money to provide services to immigrants
- Permanent residency for Afghan allies who fled Afghanistan
- Immigrants awaiting visas eligible for work if they have a US citizen fiance or spouse
- Asylum applicants get work permits while they wait
Bad:
- Building more Trump-style wall
- Increased detention facilities (could be needed, but I don’t trust this administration or Trump if he wins to use them responsibly and morally)
- Faster asylum claim processing could be abused and lead to unfair denial
- Nothing for Dreamers
WTF:
- Border shutdown if more than 5,000 people cross illegally on average. This is funny to me, like, we could stop it now but we don’t? But now we will? Or are we going to shut down legal ports of entry and crossings, and cut off our nose to spite our face economically?
LOL:
- $48 million to fight the flow of fentanyl
So there’s some actually good stuff in there, at least. Which is probably why it won’t pass. They can get all the bad stuff, and more of it, with none of the good stuff, in like a year if Trump wins.
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We can maybe give Bush 1 and BO credit for being totally fit for office.
You don’t do the stupid shit Clinton did and be totally fit.
Reagan, Bush43, Trump all obviously not totally fit. Bush43 being the brainiac of that trio says it all.
Sadly it’s not a requirement. Or even common in my adult life.
Different types of “fit for office” there. Clinton and Bush 43 were cognitively fit for office, and Reagan was at least at the beginning. Morally and legally? That’s a different story.
Mitch McConnell on the border bill, February 5, 2024, 3:48pm
“This is a humanitarian and security crisis of historic proportions,” he said. “And Senate Republicans have insisted — not just for months but for years — that this urgent crisis demanded action.”
“It is now time for Congress to take action on supplemental national security legislation that finally meets those challenges head on,” he said, adding; “Make no mistake, the gauntlet has been thrown and America needs to pick it up.”
Mitch McConnell on the border bill, February 5, 2024, 7:53pm
https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1754669544151429337