Debate Was a Wake Up Call for America
The message may just not be the one you were expecting
The June 27 debate between President Biden and ex-president/convicted felon Donald Trump was a wake up call for Americans, and particularly for Democrats. Let’s hope they get the message.
Yes, it is almost a cliche at this point to say it, but Joe Biden had a bad debate night.
But do you know who also had a bad debate night - a worse debate night, in fact, than Biden?
The 34 x convicted felon Donald Trump.
He lied, pretty much non-stop. He smeared. He whined. From start to finish. He even repeated - multiple times - that he would not accept the outcome of the election if he lost it, signaling that January 6 might just have been a dress rehearsal for another run at overthrowing our government if he loses.
The political malpractice of the Republican Party was also on full display. With his criminal indictments and now 34 convictions, being found liable for sexual assault, plus his effort to overthrow the government, Republicans not only nominated Trump anyway, they act as if being a one man, rolling crime wave and tying to over throw our government are normal and of no concern.
When I grew up. in Van Meter and Adel, Iowa in the 1960s, you wouldn’t have been able to be a local scoutmaster with a record like that. For today’s Republicans, heck, they’ll nominate you for President of the United States with it. No questions asked.
Nobody in good standing in that party has suggested he leave the Republican ticket. They are planning to celebrate his nomination later this month.
Americans who watched the debate saw that their choice in this election is between two flawed candidates. Age is not really the issue. They are both roughly the same age. Neither were good communicators that night.
The issues are: their character; what they stand for; whether they can be trusted and will tell the truth.
At the debate, Biden was battling - in addition to a life long stutter - jet lag, a strong cold, and abysmal debate prep by his staff who let him down. All of that, except the stutter, can be fixed. It is also unlikely to be repeated, and it is important to note none of it has not been repeated since the debate.
Trump’s flaws are a much different story. And they are repeated every time he gets near a microphone.
Trump’s flaws are baked deeply into who he is. They will never change: Three and a half years after he was put out of the White House by the American people, Americans saw that he is still the same old incompetent, ignorant, whiner and peddler of personal grievances he has always been. He is still a pathological liar, an opponent of democracy, a smear artist who constantly works in an “evidence-free zone.”
At the debate, Trump demonstrated that he doesn’t even have the capacity to come up new material. His mountain of lies and complaints were the same old tired trash he’s been peddling for years. Sure he may have sounded better telling his lies than Biden sounded telling his truths, but there is nothing eloquent about a firehose of time worn lies.
And there is something noble about the one who stands up to the lies, fights for and tells the truth.
Trump offered undecided voters little to nothing in the form of policy proposals.
Biden on the other hand offered truthful accounts of what his administration has accomplished, and the work he intends to continue in a second term.
The problem for Trump is this: his flaws and failures cannot be fixed.
The core of Trump’s failures is his disinterest in policy if it is not connected to helping him grab power; the hollowness of his character, and his inability to do anything but lie.
He’s not running to build a better America. or make things better for Americans.
He’s running to stay out of prison.
That’s what undecided voters saw on the debate stage from Trump. I don’t think they will be able to unsee it by Election Day. That’s why even though Biden’s poll numbers dipped a little - usually within or close to the poll’s margin of error - Trump’s numbers did not go up significantly.
Something else Americans saw on debate night: Both candidates have records as president. Trump’s record is so bad he had to lie about it, even claiming as his own things Biden is famous for achieving. It was a pathetic thing to witness.
Trump’s record is one of catastrophe:
economic collapse;
an avoidable pandemic he let happen through negligence, inaction, and arrogance that killed 375,000 Americans in 2020 alone;
farm markets disrupted;
record unemployment;
record levels of national debt;
extortion of an America’s allie;
and an attempt to overthrow our government when he lost the election.
Biden’s record is one of historic success:
rebuilding of the American economy,;
putting an end to the pandemic;
personal earnings that have gone up;
job growth and low unemployment rates that are setting records;
stock market record highs;
inflation, driven by pandemic disruptions and corporate greed that is falling;
much of America’s neglected infrastructure is being rebuilt - adding even more jobs to the economy;
the cost of insulin, capped at $35;
and a host of other policies, programs and initiatives that strengthen and improve the lives of millions of Americans every day.
There is no need to lie to make that record look good.
Biden may not have been the most eloquent teller of those stories at the debate - but he is the president who made those stories happen.
As he said the day after the debate, “I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth and I know how to do this job.”
Yes, he does.
Democrats need to move past the hand wringing. I understand it, and reasonable people can disagree on the debate and what it means for the campaign.
But here’s what I know.
It is time for Democrats to move on and focus on winning in November.
Joe Biden ran in the primaries, won them, and earned the votes of the delegates who will nominate him for a second term in Chicago in August.
Only Joe Biden can undo that, and he has made clear that won’t undo it.
Agree with his decision or not, but it’s his decision to make.
He’s made it. Move on. There is important work to do. Now.
Joe Biden earned the right to make the decision by entering the primaries and winning enough delegates to secure the nomination. If some in the party were concerned about his age, they could have - and perhaps should have - run against him in the primaries, and tested the strength of that argument. They did not.
Joe Biden also earned the right to make that decision by the strength of his record in office, which really is one of historic achievement.
He deserves better than to have some in his party try to define him by one bad debate night.
America is four months away from Election Day.
Democrats need to understand that this stopped being an intramural contest some time ago. It’s time to be gearing up for, and working toward, the big game - General Election Day.
The fight for Democrats, at this point, needs to be with Donald Trump, not with each other.
Frankly, it is kind of absurd to now be wondering whether Joe Biden can do the job of being President of the United States when he has been doing it for three and half years and performing at historically significant levels of success.
He may not be the fastest or smoothest walker. But neither was Franklin Roosevelt.
There is simply no evidence that Joe Biden can’t do the job. Remember the constant leaks from the Trump White House suggesting how unfit he was for the office? If the same were true of Biden’s ability to do the job, you’d be hearing about it.
We don’t.
Democrats should - must - run against Donald Trump as the enemy of democracy that he is, but how do they do that if they eject him at the last minute as their nominee, after he comped in and won the nomination. through a democratic process - the primaries - and let the party bosses pick the nominee?
The debate’s wake up call message was that:
the stakes of this election are, indeed, very high and go well beyond the tribal wars that have defined way too much of it so far.
the presidential candidate choices before America in 2024 for president are not only clear, but stark. Democracy hangs in the balance.
Democrats do not have the luxury of being diverted from the tasks at hand - defeating Donald Trump, sweeping MAGA Republicans out of office, and winning a new lease. on life for democracy in America.
Focus, Democrats, focus. That’s what that wake up call was all about.
The times call for a timely, focused and all out fight, not the chaos and confusion of a last minute game of “fruit basket upset.”
I agree with you on this. I don’t understand why all of the media focus on one candidate, and it is not the criminal, but the one with a wildly successful term behind him. Thanks for your focus on this, Barry. Well done.
It appears that pretty much all the news media has succumbed to the low-hanging fruit of the debate snafu, but for their own selfish reasons of ratings on the hamster wheel of continual news headlines. They infer somehow that we should hitch our political choices to a utopian sense of perfection, but perfection in this world doesn’t exist, and such efforts only serve as a mudslide to conceal the good that has been done. The choice in November couldn’t be any clearer as Barry illustrates.
Like few others can tell it these days, or will drop their monetary selfishness to speak what they should very well know is the truth, Barry is that unselfish individual who time and again has spent his entire professional life shining the spotlight on what truly matters—-and that is this country’s democracy that’s ultimately at stake.