Looking Back on Last Night's Debate
Trump's Ignorance and Malice, Biden's Squandered Opportunity
The single most important task for each of us is ensuring American democracy prevails in 2024. That means that we must fight like hell to defeat Donald Trump in November. Last night, Joe Biden failed to take advantage of an opportunity to demonstrate his vigor. But even as the President stumbled, Trump showcased disaster.
Joe Biden has been an honorable and capable public servant for many decades. Last night he spent his allotted time discussing the successful policies that have been implemented under his administration, although not in a particularly clear manner. Donald Trump, on the other hand, spent the debate spewing lie after lie, demonizing immigrants and spreading the fear and hate on which his popularity relies. He proudly took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, refused to accept the 2024 election results, and referred to the January 6 insurrectionists as “patriots”. All of these statements emphasize what we already knew: Donald Trump is a narcissistic wannabe authoritarian who would happily destroy our democracy and strip you of your rights if it meant more power for himself.
Although the debate format and CNN’s lack of fact-checking did Biden no favors, Trump’s ludicrous statements and unpopular extremist positions left the door open for strong attacks against him. Unfortunately, the President was not up to the task last night. Biden’s campaign team has stated he was dealing with a cold, but whatever the case may be, he must get to work immediately convincing the American people of his vitality. Biden is infinitely more capable and decent than Trump, but many viewers of last night’s debate do not have the policy knowledge to determine when Trump was lying, and it was incumbent upon Biden to set the record straight.
Frankly, I’m disappointed in the President’s team for preparing him for the wrong debate. Biden would have thoroughly dismantled Trump in a genuine policy discussion, but the debate prep should have accounted for the inevitable devolution into the low-level brawl we witnessed. While Biden answered the moderators’ questions with thoughtful responses and context, his slow hard-to-understand speech pattern ended up overshadowing the impressive substance of his words. Imagine how much stronger Biden would have looked if he started every answer by saying "Everything that racist, America-hating, 34-time convicted, sexual predator just said is a lie. Here’s the truth…"
There are those arguing that President Biden should step aside to allow a younger candidate to challenge Trump. Personally, I’m not ready to abandon the man who has been one of the strongest Presidents of my lifetime because of one weak debate performance. We always knew this would be a challenge, and I fully believe he can and will defeat Donald Trump. I will do everything in my power to make sure that he, and other Democrats up and down the ballot, send MAGA where it belongs this November.
I posted the following last night at That's Another Fine Mess:
Once again, the Cretin News Network and the overage yuppies still stupid enough to continue to work there lived down to my expectations: no mic control, no holding El Jefe Del Mar A Lardo to the rules, and Alex Wagner proved how desperate she is not to get dropped at MSNBC like happened back in 2008 (I just canceled recording her show). I’ll laugh if he wins and they and the rest of the DC Press Corpse find themselves looking out from the wrong side of the barbed wire fence at the tent city in West Texas they’re confined to. They all fucking well deserve it, but we don’t.
Once again, I will say that if the DC Press Corpse and the rest of the cable news yuppies and the “Democratic Consultants” had been in the Navy between December 7, 1941 and June 4, 1942, someone would have thrown their useless asses overboard.
Oh, it’s terible! The enemy is winning! Whatever can we do??? Well, as Dick Best told me, “We did our jobs and didn’t think about losing because it was unthinkable.” And then on June 4, 1942, they cut out the heart of the Japanese in six deadly minutes.
Too many Americans act like professional-level nitwits. They’re the reason we didn’t get The GI Bill For Everybody in the Second New Deal that didn’t happen because they were (sniff, sniff, boo hoo) “disappointed” by the way the war had been going, so they didn’t show up to vote on the first Tuesday in November 1942…
Four days before the US Army landed in North Africa. Step One on the hard-fought road to Normandy.
And let me tell you from ten years’ experience as a “professional Democrat” that the term “Democratic Consultant” is a two word quickie for “over-educated otherwise-unemployable moron who’s a legend in his own mind”.
I agree completely with what Josh Marshall wrote to a TPM subscriber:
“It sucked. It was brutal. But this is where we are. And a million people in history have been in suck and brutal situations and they pushed forward. Maybe they were in a battle and then they all died. Or maybe that was the moment when they made the critical decision to pull together and they won. This is living in history where we don’t know which story we’re in. That’s life. It provides an immense psychic relief to break the existential glass and say he should withdraw. Okay, then what? This is where we are and we have to keep fighting because that’s the only realistic choice we have.”
We. Have. To. Keep. Fighting. Because. That’s. The. Only. Realistic. Choice. We. Have.
Just like the guys on the carriers at Midway who tore the heart out of the enemy after six months of retreat and defeat.
I agree with you that he wasn't prepared for the 'debate' he should have known was coming. Heather Cox Richardson said Trump was using the 'Gish Gallop', meaning throwing out so many often unrelated lies that the opponent can't keep up. This is a definition: The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique that involves overwhelming your opponent with as many arguments as possible, with no regard for the accuracy, validity, or relevance of those arguments.
I believe Biden's team should have prepared him for Trump using this technique since it's how he communicates all the time.
I believe Biden should hold a press conference TODAY and acknowledge how poorly he did, apologize that he has frightened the public and assure us that he is more than capable of taking care of our country.