The Debate Lends Credence to President Biden’s Decision to Drop Out
The second presidential debate serves as a barometer of our changed presidential race
For many Americans, the first of the 2024 presidential debates was the moment the election began to feel real. Before then, it was a concept that hovered above us. Many were at least aware of the stakes at hand. But the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was when those stakes became undeniable. It was the first time both parties put their cards on the table, and what Democrats saw of their prospective leader disheartened them to their very cores. It cemented in the notion that there were only a few months remaining before this consequential election, and that the Democratic party’s standing was anything but good.
Despite all of his accomplishments in office, Joe Biden failed to live up to the occasion and it’s a fact that will live on in history books.
The tide-turning debate spurred a period of disunion among Democrats as we fervently argued over our best path forward. Between Biden continuing to brave the race, resorting to an open convention, or Kamala Harris assuming the top of the presidential ticket, for entire weeks there was little consensus among party members about the most viable course of action. But as the discussion continued, the calls for Biden to drop out spread like wildfire. By the time the demands had reached a fever pitch, his entire campaign forward seemed like little more than an attempt to prove his mental fitness and rise to the weighty challenge at hand.
Harris has overseen a radical reinvigoration of her party since Biden dropped out of the race. But there are still those who believe we would have fared better with him on top of the ticket than trying our luck with Kamala.
Harris’ rallies have generated an enthusiasm reminiscent of Barack Obama’s campaign back in 2008, and the number of young and minority voters registering only confirms it. Yet some have found a call to criticize her in her limited number of sit down interviews. They still doubted that she could truly take the heat.
Last night’s debate displayed how this race has gone full circle since the one that viewers witnessed in July. The shift in energy between the two nights could hardly be clearer. In the first, the Democratic hopeful was a feeble old man who struggled to sell his vision for the future to Americans. The second one featured a Democratic candidate who exudes youth and clarity and articulately conveys her hopes for the future. And in both cases, they debated against a man who uttered very few words that were true in his over an hour and a half on stage.
Biden’s failing wasn’t in substance. If the debate were a test on policy, he would have passed it in flying colors when compared against his competitor. His failing was exclusively in presentation. And in these debates that have become causes for spectacle rather than reasons for rational discussion, it’s presentation that means everything. It didn’t matter that Trump presented no actionable plans for the future. He powered through his blunders and appeared a thousand fold more confident and virile than his 81-year-old former opponent.
In none of Biden’s or Clinton’s debates of the past eight years did either seem prepared to fend off against Trump’s unpredictable brand of debate. Who had the clearer command of policy was plain in every conversation between candidates, but neither of the two quite knew how to contend with his erratic, scattershot attacks. In many regards, the Trump / Harris debate last night was among the first time throughout his career in politics where he viscerally struggled to command the conversation. Trump spoke for a few minutes more than Harris throughout the night, but his insults seemed defensive more than they did domineering.
Between the two debates, there was no variation from Trump when it came to the issue of substance. On nearly every occasion when a direct question was asked, he walked around it and found a way to turn the conversation back toward his apocalyptic fictions about life in Harris’ America.
At first, he appeared composed. He stated lies with a measured confidence. It was evident to viewers just how much of his coaching prior to the debate centered around restraint. His handlers wanted him not to come off as the angry, ranting, raving old man that he so often does in his rallies. For the first ten minutes, he succeeded enough in that mission to give Democrats pause.
Yet that brief portion of the night when he maintained his composure was short-lived. From the instant Kamala called Trump on the madness of his rallies, and his dwindling crowd sizes, there was a discernible shift in momentum. She got under his skin.
Some suspected beforehand that she might enrage the former leader by resorting to the “weird” insult that’s become a focal point of this election season. Instead, most of her baits involved systematic unpackings of his failings in office and his history of malfeasance. She enumerated the issues with an impressive poise.
With hardly a stutter or fumbled word throughout the nearly two hours on stage, she lambasted Trump’s record and his despotic ambitions. She called him out for the insurrection and his felony charges. She mentioned the court that found him liable of sexual assault. But even during the most clashing verbal altercations throughout the night, she never lost her overarching calm.
She smiled and audibly laughed as Trump spouted a familiar brand of falsehoods. She put her chin to her face in bemusement and furrowed a brow as Trump recited predictable conspiracy theories. He was repeatedly called out for his fallacious claims by moderators and Harris alike, but continued to parrot them throughout the night regardless. For hardly the first time, he made a mockery of the institution of debate and comported himself in a manner that most high schools would deem disqualifying.
Harris hardly appeared to fret when Trump went on the offensive, and when she was given the floor to speak, the blows she dealt were punishing. In these protracted conversations between politicians that center so famously around pithy comebacks and insults, she walked away with the zinger trophy.
Even while Trump exhibited a marked serenity early on in the debate, those arguments from Kamala appeared to palpably eat away at him. His pupils darted from side to side in visceral indignation in his worst moments. As the night wore on, we watched his voice grow angrier and his scowl grow more derisive. By the end of the night, it appeared that much of his training prior to the debate had gone out the window and he’d forfeited whatever opportunity he still had to win undecided voters.
At times, Kamala Harris could be accused of being sentimental and overly maudlin. But the contrasting vision that Trump offered, both for the future and the country as it stands presently, were colored by a fire and brimstone lunacy. His words were entrenched in race-baiting fantasies that one can assume he doesn’t even fully believe himself.
He recited debunked conspiracy theories that ranged from cannibalized house pets to his supposed victory in the 2020 election. On a few occasions, the moderators directly called him on his lies and left little room from him for retort. In other instances, he was relegated to his role as a ranting child as the two interviewers continually reminded him that they had a lot to cover and needed to move onto other subjects. As the night wore on, he continually turned back to the same thought loops of unfounded grievances.
In one telling moment when Trump’s reception within the global community was questioned, Trump boasted that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who dismantled his own democracy and installed himself as an effective dictator, believed in Trump’s leadership.
When questioned about his decade worth of rhetoric about replacing Obamacare with something better, Trump stated not that he had plans, but “concepts of a plan.”
Adding insult to injury on what likely stood as the single worst day of his campaign thus far, Taylor Swift announced to her 283 million followers that she was endorsing Kamala Harris in her campaign for president. It appears that last night’s debate represents another turning point in the race, and that Trump’s prospects to win the electoral college legitimately have taken yet another hit.
For the remaining voters on the left who believed Biden should have remained in the race, it’s difficult to imagine last night wasn’t the display of thoughtful showmanship and command of substance that they needed to see from Harris to be convinced otherwise.
I lament one amazing opportunity that Harris missed.
Trump believes that tariffs are paid by "foreign nations" and would raise billions if not trillions. Harris should simply have said, slowly and clearly, "I'm afraid Donald does not understand that tariffs are paid NOT by foreign nations but by DOMESTIC importers, U.S. Companies in other words, who will, naturally, undoubtedly, and immediately pass these costs on to the U.S. consumer boosting cost of goods and food and skyrocketing inflation."
Had she taken the time to really explain this clearly, so that even the more moronic Trumpists would have understood, she could have shown Trump up for the ignoramus that he is and scored a huge point.
As I said, I lament the missed opportunity.
Excellent recap. Kamala was clearly the winner. Her prosecutorial skills served her and us well. It was a joy to watch the orange faced jerk lose his battle with decorum and calm. What a sight to behold! And Kamala enjoyed it as much as we did. GO BLUE!! 💙🇺🇸