Panic in the Democratic Party after Biden’s failure in the televised debate

Two old men competed early in the morning for the kindness of the American people. Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the oldest ever to run for president, tried their hand at convincing a small segment of doubters. The assumption of most observers before the debate was that nothing would fundamentally change.

This assumption changed within a minute or two, and was turned on its head in the next hour and a half. The debate turned into a major disaster for the president and his party. Thousands of messages appeared on social media, and we were later heard in discussions in the television studios: panic is spreading in the Democratic Party, senior party officials are wondering if the time has come to show up at the White House and plead with the President to withdraw from the race.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” said John King, CNN’s most prominent political commentator, “and I’ve never seen anything like this.” He waved at his cell phone, which was covered with desperation messages from all of the president’s men. It was amazing to see the CNN commentary staff, mostly Democrats and Trump haters, agree with their Republican colleagues that Biden’s candidacy is on the verge of collapse.

I’ve been watching live presidential debates for far longer than most of my readers. I watched the first one in 1976, between President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. I didn’t miss a single one of them over the next 48 years. It was not like this. Over the years there were good moments and bad moments, candidates stumbled and made mistakes, observers and commentators divided scores and agreed and disagreed on results; But none of the debates of the last half century have compared to what we saw this morning.

I am satisfied if there is even a point to a reservation. Of course, there are still four months until the election (actually less, because early voting begins in dozens of US states many weeks before the official voting day), and “anything can still happen”. But the 90 minutes of the debate are going to be etched in the depths of the American memory. will be divided into minutes and seconds, and distributed day and night on social media. From then on, Trump’s entire election campaign could be based on a replay of that terrible minute, at the beginning of the debate, when the president became confused, lost his train of thought, and ended a sentence with the shocking words, “We will defeat the Medicare”.

“Medicare” is the government insurance program for the elderly, a jewel in the crown of the American welfare state. The president obviously did not intend to destroy Medicare. He probably wanted to brag about his success in defeating the corona virus. But that’s what he got. Trump had no difficulty believing his good fortune, and immediately pounced on the president’s stumble.

Rising feelings of compassion

From then on Joe Biden was on the boards. If such a debate had been decided by knockout, the judges would have ended it in the fifth minute. From that point, for long and exhausting minutes, the president’s supporters, and even some of his opponents, looked at Joe Biden with rising feelings of compassion. What is this man doing on this stage at this critical point in the history of his country and the world?

Republican commentators questioned after the debate why so many of the president’s people and his party officials lied or pretended that Biden was fit to serve another four years, or actually four more months. And why on earth did the Biden people propose the debate and the date?

Donald Trump almost easily beat Biden. What does “man” mean? He dominated the debate without Egypt. He hit from all sides, above and below the belt. He mocked Biden time and time again. He looked good, with the help of the makeup of course, and with the help of the artificial hair, but his visual advantage was unequivocal. His voice was loud and clear.

Biden was just the opposite. A cartoonist from the opposing party would have a hard time drawing a less flattering cartoon than the one depicted on the screen. For months, the social media accounts of the American right have gone out of their way, sometimes to the point of falsification, to describe Biden as a frail old man, having trouble standing or walking, having trouble speaking, having trouble remembering, having trouble stringing words together into an intelligible sentence.

Evil exaggerations? Maybe. Except they adapted it in its entirety live from the CNN studio in Atlanta. The words gurgled in Biden’s throat; Entire parts of his words were incomprehensible, either because it was difficult to follow them, or because the syntax and choice of words were defective, or because his voice echoed and faded to a hoarse whisper. The president has pronunciation and speech problems stemming from his severe childhood stutter. This has always been the case. But it’s hard to remember when it was clearer. It should have been clear to the people who talked to the president every day, in his office, in the White House situation room, on Air Force One plane.

It seems that a bond of silence has been established, although in recent weeks we have begun to hear about increasing signs of cognitive problems, for example in a list in the Wall Street Journal that we published here, at Globes, four weeks ago. But the president’s people insisted that he was functioning well, that he was in control of things, that he had a lot of energy.

Like Reagan in 1984? No

It is possible that the president simply had bad luck, perhaps the result of over-preparation? Of course, it is possible.

I recall the debate between President Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale in 1984. Reagan ran for a second term at the age of 74. He was the oldest of the contenders until Biden came along. Observers noticed a cognitive decline in Reagan in the previous years. Later it became clear that these were early, or even relatively advanced, signs of Alzheimer’s. Mondale was almost 20 years younger than him.

Reagan returned and was accused of being ignorant of policy details. His preparers and coaches for the debate bombarded him with huge amounts of facts and statistics, so that he could dispel the impression. He got confused, and it suddenly dawned on the TV viewers (in the era before the Internet) that Reagan was old and weak, and Mondale’s polling situation was improving.

But Reagan was incredibly popular, the most popular of all 20th century presidents. The economic situation improved and improved in the year leading up to the elections. Reagan was able to counter the impression of his old age in the second debate through his sense of humor. When asked about his age, he replied, “I’m not going to describe my opponent as young and inexperienced.” Mondale was 56. Everyone laughed, including Mondale, and that was the end. Reagan won 49 of the 50 states, the largest majority in US history.

Maybe it will happen to Biden? The unequivocal answer this morning is, no, it won’t happen. Recovery after this terrible humiliation is unthinkable.

Certain destruction against possible destruction

What then might happen? The most extreme prediction, which now sounds less extreme than it was, is that the Democratic Party will replace him. He did win the party’s primary elections without difficulty, and he has enough delegates to accept its nomination as a presidential candidate at its convention, in the fourth week of August. But if he retires, the conference will be able to find a replacement for him.

Since 1968, no US party convention has nominated a candidate who did not win the primaries. Such a state of affairs could be devastating for the Democrats. But they may have to choose between certain doom with Biden and possible doom without him.

The next days, maybe the next hours, will develop into a dizzying race. Staying with Biden will not only involve a democratic relinquishment of the presidency, but it may involve relinquishing positions of power throughout the political system for many years.

It will ensure the defeats of democratic candidates for dozens of other positions: senators, elected representatives of the House of Representatives, governors of states, holders of senior positions in each of the states. It could keep the Democrats in opposition for a whole generation.

Of course, if the president stomps his foot and insists on staying, it will be very difficult to oppose him. Choosing a replacement will be extremely complicated, and will pit the various wings of the party against each other to the point of rupture. Perhaps it is only for this reason that the Democrats will decide to bite their lips and risk a bitter defeat. It can be assumed that the political news from the USA will change and develop in dramatic directions minute by minute. It is worth following.

A Palestinian state? Trump will “show”

It’s almost embarrassing to admit that after a thousand words we didn’t touch the content of the debate at all, just because the content pales in comparison to everything else.

Regarding Israel and the war in Gaza, Trump gave up the opportunity to attack the president, or to express overwhelming support for Israel. He did say that Israel should be allowed to finish the war, but he did not utter a single word of criticism about stopping ammunition, for example. He replied with the words “I will see”, when asked about a Palestinian state.

He said that Biden tried to become a “Palestinian”, but the Palestinians don’t like him, because he is a “weak Palestinian”. He said the president didn’t lift a finger against “Palestinian riots” all over the US, but didn’t say what he would have done. He said that if he were in the White House, Iran and Hamas wouldn’t have dared to start a war. or in almost any other matter.

What a night, what a drama.