If Thursday night’s presidential debate was any indication of the upcoming campaign, I A record number of American voters Those who claim to have withdrawn from the political process altogether.
This is not the column I set out to write. Ahead of Thursday’s debate, Joe Biden’s team was raising hopes that the president would clarify his campaign message and take the fight to Donald Trump’s doorstep.
It took less than 12 minutes for whatever carefully laid plan might have been to fall apart, and instead Mr Biden revealed something his advisers had tried to avoid for much of the campaign: his age.
Trump alternated between his usual tough-guy, yelling victimhood, but his dreary routine paled in comparison to the hoarse, dazed Biden who appeared onstage in Atlanta. For many voters, Thursday’s showdown on CNN marked the first time they’d seen Trump and Biden in person since the 2020 campaign ended. What they saw will only intensify persistent fears that Biden will “attack Trump.” Simply too old We will wage a vigorous campaign to defend America’s beleaguered democracy.
To put it bluntly, there is a huge gulf between the candidates’ debate skills and their ability to effectively govern America’s vast administrative state. Biden embodies that gulf more than anyone else, and he is the most A legislatively successful first term for a president Since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.
Biden, once a formidable debate talent, found it impossible to fend off Trump’s deluge of lies and distortions. At one point in the first quarter of the debate, Biden became so lost in his own argument that he turned a question about abortion into a monologue about immigration, inadvertently making his opponent’s point.
At another moment, Biden said:Finally, we defeated Medicare.The surreal gaffe unintentionally launched one of Trump’s most surefire anti-Biden attacks.
For much of the debate, Trump seemed to own the stage. Instead of going toe-to-toe with Biden, as he did in 2020, the former president fired off a string of half-truths directly at the American people — a humiliating moment for Biden, who used the same tactic so effectively against Trump four years ago.
But debate should not be just about appearances: we should at least try to consider the substance of what is being said.
Trump’s men and women who stormed the Capitol on January 6th “So innocent.” He even told Biden that he should be “ashamed” of prosecuting extremists involved in attacks on police officers and looting government buildings.
When Biden asked me Condemn the Proud Boys President Trump mentioned the extremists who engaged in violent acts, but simply ignored them, and Jake Tapper, reportedly one of the hosts for the night, didn’t seem to think it was worth even a passing mention.
Biden has tried hard to frame the 2024 campaign as a referendum on democracy itself. “Have you ever heard of a president who seeks retribution?” he said about an hour into the debate. Hitler did good things“I want to know what it is.” Trump again ignored the remark, and neither host found the topic interesting enough to pursue.
It goes without saying that things like age and political skill matter anymore. Trump knows this all too well, as the first man in American history to assume the presidency with no policy or political experience whatsoever. The majority of voters are now firmly in either the Democratic or Republican camps and consider themselves unpersuasive. A small minority of independent voters will likely decide whether Biden returns to the White House or the country accepts a second, overtly authoritarian Trump administration.
The Biden campaign is increasingly relying on traditional and political surrogate networks. Social media Refining and amplifying the president’s message, a necessity for any campaign, won’t fill the gaps left by a candidate who struggles to get his message across to the American people. That admission may upset many Democrats, but it’s true. Unlike the Trump campaign, Democrats can’t spread reassuring lies, even if it forces them to ask tough questions about Biden’s debate performance and effectiveness as a campaigner.
I’m not a Biden campaign staffer or a close friend of Bidenworld, and I don’t know if there are any high-level discussions currently taking place about Biden’s concerning performance, but it would be politically dishonest to pretend that Thursday’s debate went well for the president.
Barack Obama’s Confusion at the first debate Tonight’s debate should prompt serious soul-searching about what the Biden team needs to fix compared to Trump’s 2012 run against Mitt Romney, or else Trump’s second presidency could be one that upends our democracy forever.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.
