Trump doesn’t do debates, never has. Debate requires structure and discipline, thought and preparation, and most of all civility. Trump only knows how to argue and berate, lie and insinuate, and most of all be a relentless bully. Last night never stood a chance and now it’s yet another case of believing your eyes and ears, or actually allowing Decision/2020 “gamers” to create more false equivalence.
CNN’s Dana Bash called it a shit show on national television, but that’s like saying the carnage of a mass shooting is a “crime scene with suspected foul play.” This was yet another new nadir of our existential national crisis, complete confirmation a sociopath has the nuclear codes. Biden was more ancillary to that hideous predicament than participant in US history’s ugliest Presidential debate.
Look, here’s the deal… when you emerge from what is supposed to be an exchange of ideas and positions on leadership of a country within the throes of a pandemic and accompanying economic collapse, with only sympathy for your President’s otherwise god-awful children, that’s more than a shit show, it’s The Twilight Zone. Joe Biden made clear last night he is no spring chicken; he’ll get much older if he is forced to suffer yesterday’s indignities twice more. Nobody should have to. I dare say none of the globe’s worst dictators, who moonlight as the leader of the free world’s role models, would have been as depraved within similar forums.
Could Biden have done much better? Of course. In a perfect world he would have been Obama, coolly and with humor slicing the blubbering beast to pieces without any perspiration. Or he would have been Reagan at his best, the actor shifting quickly into the role of B movie hero to Trump’s villainous disgust. One can imagine Elizabeth Warren watching and wishing if only she could have been on that stage. Biden was more like the Karate black belt who, after endless hours in the dojo, when suddenly attacked on the street abandons a bit of his training and reverts to a fight or flight mode, instincts taking over. Fact is, because he has rightly avoided crowded rallies, Biden was not as sharp as he could have been. Daily speeches to packed events provide a tempo for a campaign, a constant requirement to be at the top of your game. Biden isn’t getting that and it showed.
It was a real mistake to abandon addressing Trump as “Mr. President,” but honestly, what would you do? What would Harry Truman have done had Thomas Dewey called his beloved daughter, Margaret, a trollop? Whatever it was, up to and including walking over and punching his opponent in the nose would have been understandable, even desirable. But alas, as Nancy Pelosi has accurately observed, he’s not worth it. Think about that one for a moment.
Biden’s worst moment came when Trump challenged him to name one police organization that has endorsed him. That he drew a blank was bad enough; that he looked wounded and in pain was much worse. It punctuated his age more than anything else, the gears under stress refusing to engage for a response. Fox/AM will run with it way past any end zones. A rejoinder was not hard. Biden could have very easily pointed out that the reality so many law enforcement unions see Trump as preferable only highlights how far we need to go, and how necessary it is to bring the parties together instead of seizing on political advantage. Easy Peasey.
Yet and still, like war or paddling out to surf 25-foot Waimea Bay, it’s really impossible to throw popcorn from the cheap seats on Monday morning. Gathering your thoughts on national television as a psychotic freak constantly interrupts and taunts you can only be credibly surmised by those who have actually experienced it. That anyone, let alone 35-40 percent of America’s voters refuse to take the obvious culprit to task, says everything about why last night went off like it did in the first place.
Following the disaster, CNN and Fox exemplified where things stand. The former’s panels exhibited shock and dismay similar to their reaction after Trump’s notorious remarks at the CIA on his first day in office. Even ridiculous Trump toady Rick Santorum was flabbergasted and found spinning things a bridge too far, opting to merely modify Anderson Cooper’s disbelief or Gloria Borger’s disgust. As for Fox? More normalization, with Juan Williams reaching a new low in equivalence pandering. After all, this sad spectacle was really not too different from a typical Trump call-in to Fox and Friends. Just more of the same.
Three takeaways are undeniable. First, an incumbent President aims to actively sabotage an election he knows he is going to lose. Moreover, he has zero problem with whatever level of chaos he is capable of fomenting, up to and including calling on right-wing terrorists to create bloody havoc. Next and connected, the worst kept secret going is now official, Trump embraces white supremacy and fully believes they will respond to his whims. No longer merely a stochastic terrorist, our President last night made clear the likes of the Proud Boys are valued members of his wretched core, deplorable on demand. Finally, Joe Biden is every bit of 78 years old and not what he was even four years ago. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a good President and begin to repair the extensive damage MAGA has wrought, and it certainly doesn’t mean there is any other option but to risk Covid if that’s what voting for him requires. However, it does mean nationally televised brawls with unhinged nihilist psychos will not bring out his best. It also means Kamala Harris better be razor sharp and presidential ready when she debates Trump’s man-servant. Those stakes couldn’t be higher!
For my money the best post-fiasco insight was provided by former Obama senior advisor, David Axelrod. Why would anyone be at all surprised by Trump’s behavior, he wondered, seeming genuinely mystified his colleagues were so taken aback. Too true. Trump is a destroyer; he has been all his life. The list of people he hurt as a private citizen – including tearing asunder his own family – was only limited by time and opportunity. As a candidate he demolished what was left of the GOP’s decency; as its President he has extinguished the party’s soul, demeaning its membership to nothing more than servile accomplices to his overt criminality. He’s destroyed our leadership position abroad and our fundamental government institutions at home. He’s poisoned the interplay between our three basic branches of government, to the point where his Supreme Court nominee no longer is insulated from the slime of his corrupt intents. And on and on…. So why would last night’s awful spectacle be anything but expected? Can we really even envision anything else? This is Trump, for worse or even worse than that! The national ruin comes from the millions who now – and last night particularly – would have him no other way. The coming storm. BC
Last night’s list of outrageous lowpoints grows and keeps growing. What irked me most was the call for his maga’ts to descend on the polls and challenge poor unsuspecting voters. I saw a huge herd of trumpies, shouting and flexing right outside the doors of a Pennsylvania polling station on the news last week. Voters needed escorts to get past the intimidating throng. I for one have no intention of allowing this nonsense to go unanswered.
You and me both, Big Man! You and me both. I’m not as gnarly as I used to be, but Im gnarly enough. BC