Biden has many advantages, one being that he's sane.

[MatthewG.]

There’s an exchange in the 1980’s film ‘Manhunter’ (the first movie based on a novel featuring Hannibal Lecter) that keeps coming to mind as I observe the events of this election.

In the film, FBI agent Will Graham is talking to an imprisoned Lecter, who he caught.

Lecter says to him (paraphrase) : “you must think you’re smarter than me, since you caught me.”

To which Graham replies :”I’m not smarter than you, Dr. Lecter. But I do have advantages over you. One of them is that I’m sane.”

Now Biden, is, in fact, smarter than Trump. But in terms of cold politics, I just have to think one of his biggest advantages is that he’s obviously a sane, emotionally mature, adult.

This was highlighted in the recent debate, which sent Trump nosediving in the polls. It’s a given that partisans on the left and right saw whatever they wanted to see. But I suspect the average person not into politics who watched any portion of the debate basically thought “wow! Trump’s an obnoxious nut! I’d rather not see him in charge any longer.”

I’ll go further and say Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior - “Arrest Hillary! Arrest everyone! Make every day Trump day!” - isn’t helping him either.

[Chichiri]

1. I thought you'd like a chance to see if you're smarter than him.

Then by extension, you think you're smarter than me, since you caught me.

No, I know I'm not smarter than you.

How did you catch me, then?

You had disadvantages.

What disadvantages?

You're insane.

[MatthewG.]

3. Yes! That's it.

Thanks! Although, Trump is way too dumb to come up with dialogue as elegant as Lecter’s here.

[Silent3]

2. When you look at not only Trump, but many other Republicans who've been voted in...

...it's clear that sanity isn't just undervalued, it's suspect to the Republican base. Managing to string together coherent thoughts is elitist. Ranting and bloviating and foaming at the mouth is what real 'Murkins are supposed to do.

[MatthewG.]

4. I think we may be hitting the point where that hurts the GOP

I agree that in large part the GOP base doesn’t care a lot about voting in sane and grounded people.

We may have reached the point where that actually disadvantages them in national elections though; their inability to see how much of a nutter Trump really is seems likely to bite them this time.