ENN April Presidential Debate Liveblog

[HEM]

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"ENN Presidential Debate Liveblog"

HEM @ 10:03pm ET: I'm confused because this debate isn't on Spotify.

HEM @ 10:06pm ET: To set the stage: This debate might be the biggest opportunity yet to upend a race that has so far proven to be dynamic -- albeit short. Despite universal popularity and years of people asking for her to run, Kuramia comes into the debate a hair behind the Writinglegend ticket which has risen from the ashes of the CSP/Writinglegend administration.

HEM @ 10:08pm ET: The fact it took 10 minutes to beg someone, anyone, to go over to Mixlr and see if the stream was working there shows how far that particular streaming tool has fallen.

HEM @ 10:11pm ET: Calvin: "The first section of this debate will be about vice*"

*presidents, that is.

HEM @ 10:12pm ET: Unfortunately, this question about vice toward Writinglegend is not as exciting as I may have hoped. Calvin asks a nitty-gritty question about Vice President Sincluda leading task forces and how they will work and distinguish themselves from typical ministry activity.

HEM @ 10:15pm ET: Kuramia's "mini chief of staff" comparison for her VP-led initiatives is an understandable way of framing her idea of having the VP mentor folks taking on big projects.

HEM @ 10:19pm ET: The clock is going to be a real enemy here, and I can't help but think Writinglegend litigating this VP question is a waste of time. Writinglegend is pushing hard here, but Kuramia is parrying adeptly and, frankly, I only sorta understand the difference between WL and Kuramia's position on empowering the VP to lead projects.

HEM @ 10:21pm ET: Next topic area is integration/culture. Question to Kuramia is whether she is overpromising on her new mega culture department.

Kuramia's response: "No, I don't think I've ever overpromised anywhere. Oh sorry, I lost my train of thought"

PhDre @ 10:24pm ET: "Grouping Interior and Culture together" = moderator Calvin onboard with the "draft Sarah for everything" platform.

HEM @ 10:25pm ET: Take a shot every time Writinglegend says "aggressive"

HEM @ 10:26pm ET: Writinglegend says NO FRIENDSHIPS in culture ONLY AGGRESSIVE

PhDre @ 10:27pm ET: Gleg discovers discord 6 years later

HEM @ 10:29pm ET: Writinglegend cleverly parries Kuramia's quip about weekend games fizzling out by reminding folks that he started weekend games back in the Bronze Age. He throws it back to her, saying that that demonstrates why energy needs to be devoted to innovation in culture rather than absorb the integration portfolio.

PhDre @ 10:31pm ET: WL and Kura going out of their way to not disagree w each other. Like a bad first date where you just can't wait to pick up the check and get out of there.

HEM @ 10:32pm ET: Writinglegend keeps up the broadsides, underlining Kuramia's platform comment that "integration is games." She claims that nothing has been done with integration since the "last term."

HEM @ 10:35pm ET: A little bit of a fact check on the back and forth between WL and Kuramia here...Kuramia definitely seemed to suggest that nothing has been done in integration when she said "nothing has been done since last term" and that all we've been doing is "talking."

HEM @ 10:37pm ET: Kuramia filibustering Writinglegend's question on whether any integration duties will stay with the Recruitment Ministry as she also tries to deal with some drama in eurochat.

PhDre @ 10:38pm ET: Where is integration going? Do any of us know? Does Kura know? We don't know by now, but we will know once the interior minister closing address occurs in 24 hours???

PhDre @ 10:39pm ET: Gleg says the B word. BROTHERHOOD.

HEM @ 10:41pm ET: Kuramia waffles through the foreign affairs question of "how your FA policy different from your opponent's" by throwing compliments to Writinglegend and remarking on a lot of different random things (IRC voice chat, NS Today, and so many more).

HEM @ 10:43pm ET: Calvin suggest the candidates "continue exfoliating" and Writinglegend suggests that he is "super stinky" today.

PhDre @ 10:44pm ET: Gleg emphasizes he hasn't showered. He goes more in depth regarding his body odor than his foreign policy.

HEM @ 10:45pm ET: Kuramia suggests that instead of Spotify we try to go live on the Zune

PhDre @ 10:46pm ET: The debate turns to radio, where either ministry of pod will be mentioned, or the candidates will be wrong.

HEM @ 10:47pm ET: Kuramia's answers have been going more and more off into the weeds as this debate has gone on. Lots of very twisty answers with some good content but a lot of content and meta commentary on her own replies.

HEM @ 10:51pm ET: Writinglegend: "You want a plan?? How about instead, you take these calendars! My calendars, these beautiful, beautiful calendars!!"

HEM @ 10:53pm ET: Kuramia sighs and says "oh my god!!" when Writinglegend asks about the Upvote Squad, saying: "It's a no brainer for me, but I forget I have to make it a no brainer for the rest of you." Kuramia has had a bit of a habit when answering questions of telling people they misunderstood or misread what she said.

PhDre @ 10:54pm ET: Kuramia seems apologetic over her platform, but slips in a nice barb. "if CSP could do it, I'm sure I can too"

HEM @ 10:56pm ET: The final question is that each candidate gets to ask the other candidate a question. Kuramia decides to focus her question on allegations that Writinglegend didn't communicate with Ministry staff.

HEM @ 10:59pm ET: Writinglegend: "It is a testament to my leadership skills that I have the humility to ignore all ur dumbass DMs muhahaha"

HEM @ 11:02pm ET: Writinglegend's question goes back to the Interior split, asking Kuramia why things will be different than in the past.

PhDre @ 11:01pm ET: Gleg going for the humble angle here. Repeats his comment about having made mistakes. Kura says "thank you for being an example of what leadership SHOULD be doing" - perhaps this all would have gone better against CSP.

HEM @ 11:03pm ET: Kuramia: "We always forget about integration but now we will remember it when it crashes and burns in Culture."

In all seriousness, interestingly, after very vehemently insisting her integration platform wasn't all about games, Kuramia emphasizes integration being about running games.

PhDre @ 11:05pm ET: Gleg comes back to the interior issues. Kura responds saying integration was lost inside interior? Integration has moved in and out of interior more times during this debate than gleg has said "shower."

HEM @ 11:07pm ET: The debate ends a bit of a love-fest bust with Writinglegend bowing out of taking more questions and him and Kuramia complimenting each other. I can't help but feel that Kuramia got the better of Writinglegend in the final question, continually emphasizing that she wishes Presidents always did what he did "when he messed up," continually emphasizing the "when you messed up."

HEM @ 11:13pm ET: Overall, it seems the result of two seasoned debaters on an intense time crunch is...a not very interesting debate.

Kuramia definitely performed strong relative to her platform, proving that her strength is on one-on-one and verbal communications with folks rather than long-form policy writing. In many instances -- especially early on in the debate -- she had some pretty salient points, and was more than adept at parrying Writinglegend's barrage of questions. During later portions of the debate (most poignantly on FA) her answers were a lot more waffle, but she effectively ran out the clock by complimenting her opponent and pivoting to a list of different things that could be done, generally, on the FA front. Finally, she had a very effective final question for Writinglegend where she bludgeoned him over the head as being a "great example of how to handle being a giant failure" over and over again.

Best moment: Killing Writinglegend with kindness at the end with the "you're a great example for failure presidents at home"

Worst moment: Basically any time integration came up. Confusing answers that appeared to suggest NOTHING has been done on integration since the previous term, refusing to answer on division of labor between ministries, refusing to announce cabinet picks.

Overall: B

Writinglegend also had an effective debate, but I think his performance was relatively soft compared to his highly regarded platform. He wasted a lot of time early on the debate with a barrage of very ineffective questions on the role of Vice President in a Kuramia Administration. It was bad time-clock management that left the debate moving too quick at the end for him to really dive into Kuramia's non-answers on foreign policy and her integration strategy. He did remind voters time and time again about her unpopular integration proposal, and many of Kuramia's answers either didn't make a ton of sense or were essentially filibusters ("I don't want to answer until I read the end of term address"). He also attempted to insert some trademark humor to the proceedings, but sometimes came off as goofy.

Best moment without repeating above: Parrying Kuramia's quip about weekend games being stale by reminding the audience he invented weekend games and that culture needed to focus on that type of innovation instead of becoming a nebulous mega department.

Worst moment without repeating above: Talking in circles about Some Very Aggressive festivals where your friends will NOT be invited

Overall: B+

 

[PhDre]

HEM @ 10:08pm ET: The fact it took 10 minutes to beg someone, anyone, to go over to Mixlr and see if the stream was working there shows how far that particular streaming tool has fallen.

I thought this was supposed to be a snarky and jokes blog.

This is a serious red flag for the platform.

 

[Sarah]

"draft Sarah for everything"

"No pressure"

 

[Gem]

HEM @ 10:43pm ET: Calvin suggest the candidates "continue exfoliating" and Writinglegend suggests that he is "super stinky" today.

PhDre @ 10:44pm ET: Gleg emphasizes he hasn't showered. He goes more in depth regarding his body odor than his foreign policy.

HEM @ 10:45pm ET: Kuramia suggests that instead of Spotify we try to go live on the Zune

I'M DYING

 

[Sopo]

Great liveblog and summary! Fun to feel involved even though I couldn't listen.

 

[Poseidon63]

I lovvve this!

 

[SkyGreen]

I won't be the first to say this, and I won't be the last, but it needs to be said here again. Liveblogs treat our premier regional events like punchlines, and the effort put into them would almost always be better spent anywhere else in the region (including other avenues to joke around with elections in a productive manner, like an RS shitpost). I think many of us have long since been turned off from HEM because of these repeated efforts to mock our elections without seeing any other effort, and while I am disappointed to see PhDre included in this effort he has enough of a track record that I know he'll come back around.

I'm particularly disappointed to see Calvin attached to this project, however. He is a citizen who famously does not take a break from our elections. That is, of course, a different decision than I would like him to make, but I respect his right to make that decision. However, I certainly do not respect the decision of that citizen who has not and will not ever partake in our democratic process as a filthy casual to turn around to make fun of that same democratic process. I don't see how anyone can look at this and not see disrespect being thrown our way, which I hope was not Calvin's intention, but it's certainly how I am reading this. Unless this liveblog was in fact 100% HEM, and Calvin had nothing to do with it.

I hope I'm wrong, but that's just how I see this, and that makes me kinda sad.

 

[Pichtonia]

Is this going to be a new copy pasta

Re the blog: it's always more fun to be there live and in anticipation of what's going to be written next, but always a debate highlight nonetheless! Fun read

 

[Astrellan]

I don't want to tell anyone how to feel about liveblogs generally, or having them posted in ENN, or anything else. Everyone has a right to whatever emotions such things provoke in them and I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong for feeling that way. However, for me, this doesn't demean anything. If the United States can survive the Birthday Party and the repeated efforts of Kanye West, I think Euro can survive the occasional HEM liveblog which ... honestly, look at it, you'd have to be pretty oblivious to think it was a serious commentary. I think for me, SkyGreen, the thing I do take exception with - and to be fair this isn't really my place to take exception because I am not HEM, but I will nonetheless say that it took me a bit aback, was the following statement:

I think many of us have long since been turned off from HEM because of these repeated efforts to mock our elections without seeing any other effort, and while I am disappointed to see PhDre included in this effort he has enough of a track record that I know he'll come back around.

Part of the reason that HEM has stepped back as much as he has from the region is because a lot of people here don't appreciate or get his brand of satire and humor. When he does post something like this, it tends to provoke a lot of this kind of reaction. But, I would say, HEM has run several Senate campaigns that were perfectly real and perfectly serious, including most recently one in which he won. He then proceeded to serve as what was generally acknowledged as an outstanding Senator. He's also a good friend to many in the region who enjoy spending social time with him - and yes, that includes me for full disclosure. So I think to suggest that HEM has made no other effort to do anything serious or contribute anything to the region discounts both these recent efforts, the social aspect he brings to the region, and ignores his previous serve as Minister of Employment. Anyway, my two cents.

I personally think people should lighten up a little and recognize that while this satire might not be to your taste, it is unlikely to do any harm ... and if Euro is in bad enough shape that some HEM scribblings can cost us our democracy, we are in pretty bad trouble.

 

[Ervald]

I don't want to tell anyone how to feel about liveblogs generally, or having them posted in ENN, or anything else. Everyone has a right to whatever emotions such things provoke in them and I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong for feeling that way. However, for me, this doesn't demean anything. If the United States can survive the Birthday Party and the repeated efforts of Kanye West, I think Euro can survive the occasional HEM liveblog which ... honestly, look at it, you'd have to be pretty oblivious to think it was a serious commentary. I think for me, SkyGreen, the thing I do take exception with - and to be fair this isn't really my place to take exception because I am not HEM, but I will nonetheless say that it took me a bit aback, was the following statement:

I think many of us have long since been turned off from HEM because of these repeated efforts to mock our elections without seeing any other effort, and while I am disappointed to see PhDre included in this effort he has enough of a track record that I know he'll come back around.

Part of the reason that HEM has stepped back as much as he has from the region is because a lot of people here don't appreciate or get his brand of satire and humor. When he does post something like this, it tends to provoke a lot of this kind of reaction. But, I would say, HEM has run several Senate campaigns that were perfectly real and perfectly serious, including most recently one in which he won. He then proceeded to serve as what was generally acknowledged as an outstanding Senator. He's also a good friend to many in the region who enjoy spending social time with him - and yes, that includes me for full disclosure. So I think to suggest that HEM has made no other effort to do anything serious or contribute anything to the region discounts both these recent efforts, the social aspect he brings to the region, and ignores his previous serve as Minister of Employment. Anyway, my two cents.

I personally think people should lighten up a little and recognize that while this satire might not be to your taste, it is unlikely to do any harm ... and if Euro is in bad enough shape that some HEM scribblings can cost us our democracy, we are in pretty bad trouble.

Regardless of whether this one joke liveblog foreshadows the downfall of our region, I don't think the LethoMonarchy Media Center is an appropriate place for this. We've had satirical liveblogs in the past, and they've all been in the purgatory that we call Discord (or later moved there )

 

[Trinn]

Regardless of whether this one joke liveblog foreshadows the downfall of our region, I don't think the LethoMonarchy Media Center is an appropriate place for this. We've had satirical liveblogs in the past, and they've all been in the purgatory that we call Discord (or later moved there )

Strong disagree with you there Ervald, the LMMC is the exact place for this kind of write up. Same as it is for a multitude of other blogs, articles, editorials, and short stories that have come out over the years. If they're being moved to Discord, then I think that's a pretty big disservice because looking at old material on Discord is its own nightmare.

It wouldn't fit being presented by the EBC, but its perfectly fine for what it is as created by HEM.

 

[Ervald]

Regardless of whether this one joke liveblog foreshadows the downfall of our region, I don't think the LethoMonarchy Media Center is an appropriate place for this. We've had satirical liveblogs in the past, and they've all been in the purgatory that we call Discord (or later moved there )

Strong disagree with you there Ervald, the LMMC is the exact place for this kind of write up. Same as it is for a multitude of other blogs, articles, editorials, and short stories that have come out over the years. If they're being moved to Discord, then I think that's a pretty big disservice because looking at old material on Discord is its own nightmare.

It wouldn't fit being presented by the EBC, but its perfectly fine for what it is as created by HEM.

That was not a serious response, me and the other folks I was replying to was satirizing the debate on this thread: https://forums.europeians.com/index.php?threads/hezekon-andusre-grandfatherclock-no-more-bloat.10059438/page-2#post-10382491

 

[Kuramia]

I apologize. I hadn't yet noticed the GH thread.