As an American, I was embarrassed by the performances of both candidates for president during the televised debate last week. Biden looked and sounded like a feeble old man. Trump repeatedly lied - about 30 times, according to fact checkers. Trump also said some of his greatest hits about January 6 and the 2020 election. He also came across as being overbearing and avoided answering the questions. We were also reminded of Trump being a convicted felon.
I am embarrassed that these two individuals are those selected to be their parties’ representatives. I am in good company. For example, in Sunday’s Newsday, all six letters to the editor felt the same way. I can imagine how the rest of the world looks at these choices with horror and must be perplexed at how such a great democracy can pick these two unqualified individuals as candidates for president.
I have to give credit to those Republicans who had the courage to run against Trump. It was the Republican voters who have stuck by Trump even after he was charged in four courts and is now convicted of 34 felonies.
In contrast, in the Democratic Party, there has been little enthusiasm by voters for Biden. Biden’s argument for running a second time is that since he beat Trump in 2020, he is in the best position to beat him again. Even before the debate disaster, Biden was merely running neck and neck with Trump. The debate finally woke up the establishment that Biden is not the person with the best shot of beating Trump. He is Trump’s favorite candidate to run against.
In 1974, the elders of the Republican Party such as Senator Barry Goldwater went to President Nixon and told him that the gig was up and for the sake of the country he should resign. Nixon followed his advice. Now it is time for the leadership of the Democratic Party to have the talk with Biden about dropping his bid for President for the sake of the country. If not, he could lead us into a disastrous four years with Donald Trump as president.
One way to put pressure on Biden is for those who want him to drop out to be able to have an alternative. It would blunt the Biden camp’s argument that if he drops out there will be infighting between possible candidates, which helps Trump.
The problem is that it may be too late. Biden should have been challenged in the primaries by a serious contender. However, unlike in the Republican Party, none of them had the courage to do so. Now Biden has the delegates to win the nomination. If Biden refuses to withdraw his candidacy officially before or after the convention, then the party is stuck with him.
All is not lost. The last person to have a debate performance as bad as Biden’s was John Fetterman. His happened close to Election Day and he was not running against a convicted felon with high negatives. He was running against Dr. Oz. Yet Fetterman won the election for senator from Pennsylvania. He has become maybe the strongest member of the Senate in supporting Israel and was honored by Yeshiva University at its recent graduation.
Also, the debate was at the end of June, four and a half months before the election. A lot can happen in that time. There is still time for Biden to change the narrative. For example, the next day Biden came to a rally in North Carolina with energy. You would not know it was the same person from the day before.
It is not easy to debate without any notes, especially if you intend to answer the question and not go in with the idea to say what you want no matter the question. Also, he had to deal with Trump, who has a strong personality and almost every word out of his mouth is a lie. I wonder how well we would do under such circumstances. Clearly, Biden is no longer capable of proceeding in that forum.
Biden is also helped by Trump’s high unfavorable ratings. Despite Biden’s performance, people are not going over to Trump in droves. Both sides voters are basically locked in. The bottom line is if the focus is on Trump, Biden wins, and if the focus is on Biden, Trump wins. The fact that this is the standard is an embarrassment for our country. There needs to be some real soul-searching as to how we got into this mess.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
