The 45th and 46th Presidents of the United States ended up calling each other names and debating about their golf games. That was the low-point of an event which was itself a low-point of the campaign. I generally believe debates are overrated. They reward candidates for qualities which have little to do with their ability or talent for governing. Ideally, this debate was a mistake President Biden would have been better off avoiding.
That said, President Biden not only did not avoid this debate. He actually asked for it. And he failed to present himself in such a way as to counter the right-wing echo chamber's depiction of Biden as too old to be president. I am in no way convinced that Biden is too old to be president. All things considered, he has so far been a very successful president - more so than any president since LBJ in fact. But Biden's performance appeared to confirm questions and doubts about Biden's ability to run for president, that is, to perform onstage in a vigorous and commanding manner. He sort of did that at the State of the Union. But that advantage has now been wiped out.
On substance, Biden still sort of "won" in the sense that Trump said all sorts of things that either made no sense or were outright false. But Trump spoke vigorously and confidently. He commanded the stage. Should Trump's malevolence and falsehoods matter? Yes, they should! Do Trump's malevolence and falsehoods matter more than Biden's looking not just old but elderly? Probably not. Therein lies the problem. Biden is doing his job, doing it well, but is a very poor spokesperson on his own behalf. He comes across as weak - as I said, not just old but elderly, infirm even.
I don't agree with President Biden on everything, but overall I have no doubt that Biden's policies have made this country a better place than it was four years ago and that, if re-elected, Biden's policies will continue to improve this country. In contrast, his opponent's policies were disastrous the first time around and are likely to prove even more disastrous the second time around. But Biden proved unable to highlight those facts on the debate stage last night. That means he made Trump's re-election and its dangerous consequences so very much more likely.
In an ideal world, Biden would be satisfied with what he has accomplished and would feel empowered to step aside for the next generation (which he once claimed four years ago to want to be a bridge to). Whether that can still happen remains to be seen. A complicating factor is the widespread doubt about whether Vice President Harris could be an effective candidate in his place. I never favored Biden's choice of Harris back in 2020. I think he could have chosen better then, and that the Democrats could choose better now. Theoretically, the Democrats could still choose better, if given the chance to do so. In practice, I suspect that even Harris could likely make the anti-Trump case better than Biden at this point, but I worry whether she can make it well enough to defeat Trump.
All of which brings us back to the basic problem of American politics - that our political parties have been hollowed out, and that the Democrats in 2024 may not have what it takes to hold a real convention that chooses a candidate - in other words, do what political parties did for most of U.S. history until the disastrous transformation of American politics after 1968. It would, however, be a great experience in (small-d) democratic politics if they could actually conduct such a convention this summer and then mount a convincing campaign against Trump this fall. Defaulting to VP Harris is, of course, the more likely scenario, but it is unfortunately not one the inspires sufficient confidence.
The sad fact is that Joe Biden is a good human being, a conscientious religious person, a genuine patriot, and a great president. His opponent is none of those things.
But the bottom line at this point is that too much is at stake in this election for the country simply to "sleepwalk" into a second Trump term.
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