Forced myself to watch a political speech

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I read Biden's the presumptive Democratic nominee going up against Trump, so I decided it is my duty as a U.S. citizen to listen to him speak. I have already listened to Trump enough, but never had heard Biden in a speech before.

Went to Youtube, typed in Biden, up come tons of heavily editorialized videos, news reports, clips, snippets, interviews with Biden, or news about how Biden said this or Biden said that. I wanted to hear the man actually speak alone, so I typed in: Biden gives a speech about health care. Because health care is the biggest issue in the U.S. by far.



He sounded reasonable and made sense and I didn't find anything objectionable in either his statements or opinions, but I have to be honest, I paused at the 4 minute mark, I found myself getting rather bored.

My vote in 2020 will be for safe and boring, over risky and foolhardy. Trump may not be boring but he says a lot of things that are completely false, and he has to know they are false unless he lives in a parallel universe away from the rest of us.

Yeah I may have preferred Elizabeth Warren but you know, in our system this is the way it goes, you either coalesce around the party nominee or else don't vote or make a stupid childish protest vote. I feel it is duty as a U.S. citizen to vote proper, for one of the front-runners, and not waste a vote on a childish gesture like voting for the Green Party or Libertarian Party. Biden seems better than Trump, and I certainly hope he picks a good VP, whether a black female or the other race and gender, because at his age it is quite possible he may die in office. Hopefully Biden in the White House will make racial reconciliation which we need and quit antagonizing so many groups. Get more flies with honey than vinegar. What concerns me about Biden is he will probably cave to China and Iran on everything.

These old people never seem to know when the time is right to back away, they get hooked on power and know nothing else. But whether you vote Trump or Biden, you are voting for a seventy-something with diminished mental capacity. I don't really feel like any seventy year-old is up to the task but our system offers no viable choice in 2020. How anyone expects a seventy year-old to wrap their head around all of the intricate cybersecurity and technological concerns of this age is beyond me, I guess they completely rely on advisors, so may they have good advisors.

It really do be like that.

Biden doesn't appear to offer middle class people anything.

Obama & Biden created an absurd solution to health care of the ACA penalty, that people who cannot afford health insurance should pay a huge penalty.

Trump ended this penalty.

"Biden would bring back the penalty"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-t ... blogHeader

I don't recall the penalty being huge, it was a tax assessment in the first place, so if you don't pay taxes you don't pay, and then it was like $80 or so. Most folks wouldn't be paying it that have a health care plan, only those that opt not to have any health insurance at all or insufficient health insurance and have a certain income level. That is, those that are doing OK financially and think they are healthy enough to take a chance. I took a chance for over 10 years, paid off for me although it was risky. During that time, I made too little money to qualify for the penalty. At any rate the penalty is not a big deal to me.

I actually agree with Trump's foreign policies, and it is difficult for me to pinpoint specific areas of policy I disagree with, other than health care, but his style is all wrong for a President, he is abrasive, stirring up animosity, and foolish with too many lies. A President should make an attempt to tell the truth when talking to the American people and be a peacemaker, not a pot-stirrer. That is the bottom line for me.

Well said, GA.

There are lots of compilations of Biden stuttering and misspeaking out there, but if you look at the original clips they come from then it’s clear Biden is extremely competent, with big ideas about how to fix America.

There’s plenty in his platform for fans of Warren and Sanders, but his simple competence and maturity appeals to voters across the political spectrum.

In 2017, The penalty was $695 per adult or 2.5% of household income, which ever is higher, plus
$347.50 per child under 18 or 1% additional of your household income, which ever is higher.
https://www.healthcare.gov/fees/fee-for ... g-covered/

If you're middle class, then you're being hit hard.

6-8 million people paid the penalty yearly from 2014-2017.

It is honestly hard to find platform explaining speeches for either of them now. There are too many edited clips to wade through. And they both do “old man speaking”, with lots of stutters, misspeaks, and trailing sentences that go nowhere.

If you want to try again with Biden, you may be able to find older things when he was a senator. It might show some of his long standing positions on things.

I WISH they would make a set of town hall type questions and get each of them to answer the questions separately. No debates or in person audiences needed. They would have less opportunities to descend into arguments and cheap shots and we would get more information.

Trump misspeaks too and miss-Tweets, so it's a wash really vs. Biden on the gaffes, Biden still comes out less abrasive any day of the week. There are ways to say things and ways to finesse, maybe I don't know the ways but still I expect a President to be a master at that sort of thing and a lot better at it than me.)

The thing that surprised me the most about Trump, out of everything, was to read he does not drink.

I don't recall it being quite so much, or at least I never paid it, maybe because I got covered in time. I don't think it was a great idea, and I also think the whole plan was way too complicated and ambitious. The KISS principle should have been applied (Keep It Simple, Stupid.) But I think the special interests got all excited and interfered, and Obama reckoned he might as well settle in order to accomplish something.

You got to craft your search text just right, it took me a couple tries to get Biden talking by himself. Even then I could only bear four minutes, lol. However, at this point I am totally ready for boring and predictable. Just somebody to do the damn job and no more drama.

I can see the benefit of both "town hall" sessions and debates, and feel that either (or ideally both) would make a much better substitute than simply listening to a speach.

* With a speach, you are basically rating the nominees around their ability to read a pre-prepared script.
* With a "town hall", you get the opportunity to see how well the nominee understands their position, and how well they can explain it, without the reliance on a script (whether put together themselves or by some other party), giving a more accurate reading of them as a "person" rather than as a "parrot" repeating others words (providing they don't have access to the questions prior to being asked them at the event).
* With a debate, you get the benefit of the "town hall", but with the potential ability for those involved to question parts of the other's platform, and to defend this platform against the questions, providing the possibility to determine more accurately the "person" and the platform. The risk, however, is that it can come down to personal attacks, but this also allows for either side to question (and defend) previous positions\opinions which they have held or statements they have made.

I would personally only make an opinion on a politician based on one or more speaches if no other alternative was available. I would see the debate as being the ideal way to evaluate them, providing personal attacks were limited\non-existant (questioning past opinions\actions is not a personal attack).