My friends know that I watch a good political show with the same enthusiasm as a sports fan cheering on a favorite team. Whether it is an acceptance speech, inauguration, prime time address, or the State of the Union Address, this country has a long history of memorable oratory fireworks. Last week’s presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and his opponent Donald Trump was historic for being the first rematch debate with two of the oldest candidates for the office, and questions whether Biden’s age was a factor in his lackluster performance.
“It was very clear to me that President Biden did not have the mental acuity and capacity to give the most basic and obvious responses to Donald Trump in that debate,” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said in an interview with NPR. “This was not the man I had spoken to just six months ago.”
Standing next to Trump in a room without an audience but with millions watching, Biden spoke haltingly, with a hoarse voice, struggling to remember his talking points along with memorable gaffes that mistakenly included Belarus as a member of NATO, taking credit for lowering the price of insulin, and “we finally beat Medicare” as the leading generator of anti-Biden memes.
Trump pounced on his rival and calmly, methodically, pounded away. “I don’t know if he knows what he said, either,” he quipped.
Biden shot back, noting that Trump will increase taxes on the middle class, raise tariffs, and that he is a convicted felon.
While journalists cited confidential sources within the Democratic Party who feared that Biden’s debate performance could result in his reelection defeat, on the record, party leaders stood by their headliner.
“The president might have lost the debate on style, but he won it on facts, he won it on decency, and he won it on the ideas people think are important in this country,” campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu said on CNN the morning after the debate.
Former President Barack Obama, a leading fundraiser for the party, tweeted that one bad debate should not define Biden. “This election is still a choice between someone who fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” he wrote.
Even as many American voters do not wish to choose between two elderly and unpopular contenders, outside of social media and The New York Times editorial room, they recognize that neither Trump nor Biden is running on the strength of his personality. They also understand that these two men are the result of primaries in which the voters made the choice. To pick another candidate at a party convention would be undemocratic and insulting towards voters.
When socially conservative voters picked Trump as the Republican nominee in 2016, they understood that he was not a paragon of morality, but it was his support for abortion restrictions, private schools, reducing regulation of businesses, appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court, among other items, and Mike Pence as his devout running mate, that made it an easy decision.
Likewise, Biden’s voters knew that he was a career politician who has been in Washington since 1972. He was the oldest candidate to run for president, but a year younger than Bernie Sanders, the leftist Senator from Vermont who came in second in the 2016 primaries. These voters were not concerned as much about his health nor his troubled son Hunter; it was a vote for preserving reproductive rights, recognition of LGBTQ, environmental regulations, and maintaining our alliances. With Kamala Harris as his running mate, Biden looks to minority voters and women in the same manner as when Pence stood in for evangelicals.
There are many examples of presidents who led from their gut, taking on political losses for policies that they believed were right for the country. There were also presidents whose policies were based on polling data, closely following prevailing opinions on issues. In this year’s election, the choice is not between Biden and Trump but on the policies that they represent.
More importantly, it is an election that will have an impact for future generations to come, as Trump promises to appoint young judges who will serve for decades to come, virtually extending his policies long after his physical presence departs from Washington. On Monday, the Supreme Court handed him a victory against prosecution for acts taken under his administration.
“The president is not above the law,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 conservative majority. “But Congress may not criminalize the president’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the executive branch under the Constitution.”
The decision forces special prosecutor Jack Smith to bounce the case back to the lower courts, which must then decide whether the steps that Trump took to overturn the results of the 2020 election were official and therefore immune from prosecution, or the actions of a private manner. This could delay the case past the November election, opening the opportunity for Trump to pardon himself, should he win the vote.
The dissenting justices argued that the ruling gave unprecedented powers to the president, transforming him into a king. Perhaps the title fits, as the British king is an actual figurehead without any political power, above the fray and seemingly the law, while presenting the government’s agenda in a carefully prepared address before lawmakers.
Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, will have their second debate in September, after their respective party conventions make them the official nominees. If the same rules apply, limiting rebuttals, time constraints, no live audience, and silencing the mic, I do not expect them to address each other as much as their supporters. It will be a series of issues-based stump speeches with personal anecdotes rather than a debate. Those of us who appreciate a good political show may as well watch a good movie instead.
By Sergey Kadinsky
