The Debate

"Disastrous" is the word you're looking for. Trump bloviated while Biden whispered hoarsely. "Disaster" will be the word for the General Election if the Democrats don't move fast.

Last Thursday night, our Commander-in-Chief went MIA, withering under a barrage of lies from his predecessor, and displaying absolutely none of the much-discussed prep at Camp David. How could the Biden team have so much prep and be so unprepared?

“Age” is the only useful explanation for his total failure to present cogent arguments in the face of his opponent’s wanton lies. It was by any measure a dreadful performance. It will be the gift that keeps on giving for right-wing media, and the Trump campaign will dine on Biden’s slack-jawed staring and inability to complete thoughts. Expect to see campaign ads highlighting his lowlights right up to election day, assuming he remains the Democratic candidate, which I believe he will not and should not.

Then, on Friday, the Commander-in-Chief resurfaced loudly at a rally in North Carolina. He was everything he needed to be—just a day late. It remains to be seen if there is sufficient damage control to right the Biden ship.

For all the right-wing media’s talk about the president using performance enhancing drugs, there was precious little evidence of that. If there had been, I’d have cheered for it. This isn’t the juiced-up homerun hitters chasing Hank Aaron. There will be no asterisk associated with a president hopped up on PEDs. Personally, I wish our leaders were eating Adderall from a Pez dispenser.  

The anger in Democratic circles is palpable. “You had one job,” they said. Instead of taking on Trump with the low-hanging fruit of 34 (and counting), felony convictions, his lost civil sexual assault suit, his role in the January 6^th insurrection, his support for dictators, his pathological lying, especially The Big Lie about the 2020 election, Ol’ Joe came up empty.

In one or two feeble attempts to attack, the president chose to confront his predecessor on policy. You can argue policy with an informed competitor, but you cannot argue policy with Donald Trump anymore that you can argue policy with a Golden Retriever. (There may be an argument for Border Collies, but I don’t have the space for it here.)

There’s a groundswell of opinion that CNN dropped the ball by not fact-checking our compulsive liar of an ex, but the ground rules overruled the groundswell. Moderators were not allowed to call balls and strikes. That was to be left to the candidates, and Joe Biden wasn’t up to the task.

The Donald eschewed prep in favor of rallies. He was right—there was no need to prepare. Just disregard the questions and stick to your talking points. Poor Joe. He earnestly tried to answer, but mostly couldn’t.

Candidates have gotten wise, and these debates have become Meet The Press in primetime. They are now nothing more than pivoting to one’s predetermined talking points, regardless of the question asked. Trump has the pivot down. Every question had the same answer: Inflation? Migrants. China, Russia, North Korea, Hamas, Ukraine? Migrants. Climate change? Migrants.

Part of the deal with the campaigns was a hands-off approach from CNN’s moderators. In the past, moderators have become part of the debate, and nobody likes that, but the hands-off philosophy was supposed to let the candidates fact check each other, something Joe Biden wasn’t up to, and Donald Trump didn’t need to do since Biden didn’t spew lies like Vesuvius. CNN’s fact checker found 30 of them in the 40 minutes that Donald Trump spoke. Anchor John King later remarked that they came with such ferocity that the former president “broke the fact-check machine.”

Both men seem to navigate using the rearview mirror as their primary reference. That’s no way to get to the future. Was artificial intelligence even broached? No it was not. AI is going to upend our world, and neither of them were even asked about it. What can be said of Biden that cannot be said of Trump is that at least Biden surrounds himself with honest-to-goodness experts. It enabled him to get more bipartisan legislation passed than anyone since LBJ. That illustrates the value of expertise, especially when the man in charge is not a subject matter expert.

Perhaps it’s better that this happens now rather than a month or two from now. Maybe Joe Biden will be able to see and hear his own frailties, accept the fact that he has been a very successful one term president, and step out of the way. It would be so much better for him to assume Elder-Statesman status and take a victory lap.

The debate wasn’t just a disaster for Joe Biden or the Democrats, it was a disaster for our country. If we’re to have a purely performative presidency again, I’d rather it be Taylor Swift than Donald Trump. At least her performances are inspired, honest, and enjoyable.

Whether Biden stays or goes, it’s up to us to ensure that Trump is not the next president.

2024 Jon Sinton