Summing up the debate
Summing up the debate
It takes a strong debater to refute that much malarkey, and there wasn't such a candidate on the stage tonight
So what can we say about this debate? First of all, Trump did the things he always does. He rattled off a bunch of stuff consistent with his own world view but inconsistent with facts, and he did so aggressively and consistently. These included statements like:
undocumented immigrants are responsible for all crime and living in luxury hotels in New York
January 6th was Nancy Pelosi's fault
everyone wanted Roe v. Wade overturned
he didn't have sex with an adult film actress
Biden is trying to bankrupt Social Security and Medicare
Oh and by the way he once again refused to accept the result of the election unless he approves of it.
Now, there's a longstanding norm that presidential debate moderators aren't supposed to do fact-checking in real time. This is something Candy Crowley got in trouble for back in 2012. And there's some good reason for that — it’s not a very useful debate if a candidate is just arguing with a moderator about whether an event happened or not. But the lack of fact-checking was probably more problematic tonight. Even a very skilled public speaker would have had a very hard time refuting all of Trump’s false statements and still getting in some points of his own. And Biden wasn’t that kind of speaker.
Now as for Biden… look, he just did not look good. I have generally pushed back against those criticizing Biden for his age (real or apparent), and I have credited him for an unusually effective administration. And I'm really hesitant to say that style is more important than substance, that salesmanship is more important than product. I don't think that's correct. But to the extent style and appearance matter, he looked very, very weak tonight. And if the CNN post-debate panel accurately reflects just how many Democrats are panicking tonight about Biden being at the top of their ticket, it's a reminder that image can become its own reality.
It’s a pretty consistent trend that incumbent presidents severely underperform in their first reelection debate. We saw that with Bush in 2004, Obama in 2012, Trump in 2020, and now Biden. And they’re usually able to pivot for the next time around. We don’t know whether there will be a second debate this cycle, but maybe. But Biden’s performance struck me as unusually poor, and also reinforcing a lot of existing stereotypes about his weaknesses as a candidate.
that is a fair and grim summation.
I am someone who definitely has leaned conservative. I appreciated numerous accomplishments of Trump in his first term, although his style and rhetoric only fueled more division In our country. Admittedly, I have not been a fan of Biden and or his policies. He is our president and I always seek to hold a level of respect for the person in office. I have watched the last four years of Biden’s tenure and definitely felt like there was cognitive decline. Obviously, that has become a bit of a point of contention for many Democrats, and especially those surrounding Biden. As I state the following, I am not stating it as someone from a political party standpoint who thinks their party is the only thing that matters. No, like many Americans, there has been the fear and concern that our current president may not be fully fit for office, and has Exhibited troubling signs of vast cognitive decline. The word jumbles and incoherence just seem to keep multiplying.
Please hear me, I do not necessarily want that to be true, even as someone who is not a hard-core Democrat. This is our president, and even if we have political disagreement as an American, I want someone who can represent us well on the world stage. so honestly, yes, last night confirmed all of the concerns that many people have had. It felt like the writing was on the wall, and yet there has been so much denial in an effort to prop up Biden and make it seem like anyone who questioned his health wish absolutely mean, spirited, and politically motivated. As you indicated in your article, yes, last night only reinforced all of these concerns, but with an absolute magnifying glass. In all sincerity, can you not fully understand the reasoning? Yes I know there’s a lot of political vitriol. But I’m not questioning from that line of thinking. I’m just writing as a human and an American feeling like last night was sad. We have a great country, and yet the world sees these two men in the spotlight to represent us. Politics has always been a little dirty, but I sure wish we could rewind a little bit in time to when it was easier to cross the partisan aisle for conversation, collaboration, and compromise. Now we are just left to trash the opponent. And that’s on all of us.