10 Reasons Democrats Need To Chill About Joe Biden's Debate Performance
There’s no denying it: The presidential debate on Thursday was a bad night for President Biden. It represented the long-running worst-case scenario for supporters of the president’s re-election.
Biden, in the debate, looked every one of his 81 years. He moved slowly, was far from quick on his feet, sounded raspy, and did not look in any way up to the job of running for president, much less serving as president. He also bungled key moments and missed opportunities to land key points on abortion, Trump’s criminal convictions, and other issues advantageous to him.
The debate performance set off an immediate cascade of panic on the Democratic side, with all sorts of anonymous quotes from donors and other Democrats expressing unadulterated terror and even some calls for the president to abandon his re-election bid. There were even calls for First Lady Jill Biden or former President Obama to try to talk Biden out of the race.
It was not a good night for the president. But I don’t think the bad debate means the end of Biden’s chances of victory. It’s far from clear that the June debate will go down as an important moment in the campaign. In fact, here are 10 reasons Democrats, at least for now, need to relax:
Joe Biden Isn't Doomed: 10 Reasons Democrats Need to Relax
1. It’s still only June, and Election Day is four months away.
There’s a lot left to happen, including both party conventions and, yes, more presidential debates.
If Biden attends the September debate and performs well, the June debate will matter less. And if recent presidential campaigns are any indication, important stuff tends to happen in the closing weeks- and the way news cycles work, things tend to get forgotten very quickly.
2. Indeed, Biden spoke at a rally the following afternoon and sounded dramatically better.
3. Who was in a worse position—Donald Trump in the days after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in October 2016 or Joe Biden right now? I would say Trump, and he went on to win that election.
4. In the debate, Trump didn’t exactly cover himself in glory, either. He lied. He blustered. Much like how Biden lived up to the worst caricatures his opponents have of him, Trump behaved in all ways that those skeptical of Donald Trump don’t like about Donald Trump.
Think back to the debates in 2020. Trump’s bluster and interruptions, especially in the first debate, were widely panned- to the point where Chris Wallace, who moderated that debate, has said that Trump’s debate performance cost him that election.
5. Beyond mere untruths, Trump let loose some bizarre phrases of his own, answering a question about opioid addiction with “we bought the certain dog,” while also (falsely) denying the truth of his assignation with Stormy Daniels. He weirdly bragged about “acing” a cognitive test, as he’s done many times before.
6. Biden did something Thursday that many people saw as a campaign ender. However, Trump, unique among American politicians in recent history, is especially prone to such events, whether an indictment or a scandal.
7. In 2012, Barack Obama had the worst debate performance of his career in the first general election debate against Mitt Romney. He was sluggish, uninspired, and showed little of his usual political skill. Obama performed much better in later debates, and he was re-elected easily. That Denver debate is mostly considered a footnote of that campaign. Obama himself hinted at such on social media on Friday.
8. Most voters don’t watch presidential debates, especially ones held during the non-traditional time of late June. And a battery of research has shown that presidential debate performances tend not to matter much in determining the outcome of elections.
9. The GOP talking points, heading into the debate, were the following: President Biden is a vegetable who may very well be in the throes of Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia. However, there exists some miracle drug available only to Biden that he can take at important moments that magically make all of his symptoms disappear. This is how, allegedly, Biden has been able to get through the State of the Union address and various media interviews without visibly stumbling. Why he wouldn’t just take this drug all the time, however, remains unclear.
Biden’s poor debate performance immediately made this theory disappear, and we didn’t even get the usual post-debate run of conspiracy stories about CNN rigging the roles or about the candidate secretly wearing an earpiece (although Roger Stone did indeed float that ahead of the debate.)
A GOP in the grasp of such conspiracism has a chance to act as a drag on Trump’s chances.
10. If Biden ultimately has to drop out of the race, it will not automatically mean a presidential loss for the Democratic ticket. A scenario where Biden drops out, a different candidate replaces him, and a Democrat defeats Trump has a much better than zero percent chance of happening.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is a journalist, film critic and editor specializing in the areas of film, pop culture, consumer technology, politics, sports and parenthood. He is a writer/editor with AppleInsider and a contributor to Philly Voice, Splice Today, Broad Street Review and Living Live Fearless.