Debate Debacle? Yes. Election Ender? No.
Putting the President's Debate Performance in Proper Context
It was the first presidential debate. And it was an unmitigated disaster.
From the first few minutes, you knew something was up. The incumbent president seemed to ramble, and stumbled his way towards trying to answer the questions put before him. He looked perpetually confused, and wore what some people could call “a resting 25th Amendment face.”
At the end of that full, painful hour-and-a-half, his opponent simply said to his aide, “This guy is [mentally] gone.” His lackluster performance seemed to confirm every question the press had raised about his mental acuity and his fitness to serve. Pundits everywhere devoted their time to unpacking exactly what the hell happened. Not surprisingly, only a little more than 30% of the people watching said the president won the debate. In the polls shortly afterwards, he lost as much as 7 points. His reelection campaign, by all indications, was in major trouble.
No, I am not talking about President Biden. I’m talking about Ronald Reagan. In 1984, Reagan looked much like President Biden when Reagan faced Democrat Walter Mondale—sans the uncomfortably raspy voice. Watch Reagan’s debate for yourself, if you don’t believe me. Should you want to cut the chase, I recommend you look at President Reagan’s answer to the first question (about 3:00-5:00) and his completely scattershot response to concerns he would cut Social Security (about 1:24:00-1:27:00).
You would have expected a better performance from the smooth-talking Hollywood actor.
Ironically, Reagan proceeded to win that election handily. In the next debate, he gave a much stronger performance. In fact, that debate was where we got the famous line, “I will not make age an issue in this campaign. I will not exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
Now, of course, on the one hand, Mondale was no Trump. He does not have a loyal fanbase willing to stick with him through his many felony convictions and his many pending criminal trials. On the other hand, Mondale was no Trump. He did not provide aid and comfort to insurrectionists. Mondale was not a rapist and fraudster who has alienated much of American suburbia and many many moderate Republicans. Mondale was not an unapologetic racist with a history of housing discrimination and incendiary pro-death penalty rhetoric. Arrogance is the greatest enemy of a political campaign, and the Trump team’s “cup overfloweth” with it.
They ought to remember the lessons of 2016. And, frankly, we should too.
P.S. Count me out of any Democratic National Convention coronation for unethical pro-corporate Democrats like Rhode Island’s own Gina Raimondo. My brother has said all that needs to be said about her.