The lesson so far with these debates is that the moderator needs a shut-off button, with contestants ideally each enclosed in plastic bubbles. I was a bit appalled at how Pence tried to stand over Harris by speaking over both her and the moderator. As Trumpf's lap-dog, he did a loyal job.

Harris seeme3d to wander off-script at times, but I expect she'll do far better in future contests.

27 days to go. Oh, how slowly they go :(

Hi Joe, with all this virus and yelling etc, would they not be better off to use Control's, 'Cone of Silence'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWtPPWi6OMQ&ab_channel=CarlJones

Foxy,
you'd better take another long break, you're losing it again !

cant wait for US election day.

Nearly as exciting as the AFL and NRL finals

Dear Josephus,

What I am critical of is the US President's down
playing the corona virus, not telling his voters
the truth, and not adhering and encouraging the
safety precautions that the voters should be
taking. And I am not the only one criticizing
the man for that. Even his own doctors are
critical.

Individual,

You are in no position to accuse anyone of "Losing
it" - when you never got "it" in the first place.
And still don't get it!
(smile).

"The vice-presidential debate was a reminder of what politics was like before Donald Trump was elected. It was calm, focused, policy-driven and, at times, even polite.

...In short, it was an actual debate between two adults who presented themselves as what used to be regarded as presidential.

Mike Pence did a sterling job with the cards he was dealt.

If he wasn't defending what the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine have today described as the "dangerously incompetent" US response to the coronavirus, he might have emerged the clear winner.

As things currently stand though, he lost.

Firstly, because there was no big moment that would change the course of a Republican campaign that increasingly appears to be going completely off the rails.

Secondly, because many people watching were reminded of the relative serenity of politics without Donald Trump in charge.

The day after the debate, Trump did a phone interview with Fox Business in which he called the first black woman with a shot at the vice-presidency a "monster"...

The question is whether Americans, who firmly rejected "politics as usual" by electing him in the first place, are ready to return to something resembling life before Trump.

With less than four weeks until polling day, the answer seems to be a resounding "yes".

The political fallout of Trump's diagnosis continues

To many observers, Donald Trump looks like a president spiralling out of control and headed for an historic election thumping.

During his stint in hospital with COVID-19, he claimed he had learned a lot about coronavirus.

Minutes later, he effectively ordered his security detail into a hermetically sealed car so he could do a drive-by for the 100 or so enthusiastic supporters gathered outside the hospital.

Since being discharged from hospital, [Trump] claimed that being infected with COVID-19 was a "blessing from God".

He claimed the experimental, but promising, treatment he received was as good as a "cure", perhaps not realising the antibody cocktail was developed with cells originally derived from fetal tissue, a practice considered abhorrent to much of his base...."

MORE AT http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-09/mike-pence-debate-performance-didnt-help-donald-trump/12743598