Disaster in Presidential Debate and the Remaining Hope for the Democrats
If this had been a boxing match, it would have been a TKO in the first round.
It was nominally a presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump.
Joe looked disoriented and sounded utterly inarticulate, a rhetorical disaster that, to be fair, improved just marginally, if that, throughout the debate
Using reluctant testimony as the key to credibility, as we often do in political rhetoric, Democrats across the country, including journalists at CNN, are already saying that Joe had a horrible night. No one defended his performance post-debate, although several television liberal pundits claimed that Trump was irresponsible and less than punctilious with the truth.
The only winners tonight in addition to Trump were Jake Tapper and Dana (rhymes with Anna) Bash, who suppressed their animosity to Trump and did a professional job at moderating.
On issues, Trump mangled Biden: inflation, the border sieve and its consequences, the economy, Afghanistan, and on the abortion issue, Joe’s strongest, he let Trump get through with a tie — let the states decide.
I wrote one of my most prescient pieces just over a week ago respecting how the Democrats have an out – for responsible leadership and for the good of the country: pitch Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
No one who saw this debate can be comfortable with Biden as president, much less for 4 more years.
But if the Democrats follow my advice sans Joe and Kamala, they could – shock of shocks – win the 2024 presidency.
Richard E. Vatz is professor emeritus of political rhetoric at Towson University and author of The Only Authentic of Persuasion: the Agenda-Spin Model (Authors Press, 2022) and many other works, essays and op-eds. He is a Distinguished Professor at Towson University and has won a number of teaching awards.