By Sushil Kutty
United States Vice President Kamala Harris admitted President Joe Biden could have won the CNN presidential debate on June 27. “Yes, there was a slow start,” she told a top CNN anchor. Yet Harris will not replace Biden on top of the Democratic ticket in case President Biden is persuaded to step off the presidential election stage. It was a possibility discussed widely post the disastrous Biden performance. The debate saw a fumbling Biden get hammered by a forceful Donald Trump.
That said, Trump walked away with the brickbats and the bouquets. America’s dominant left-liberal media wasn’t forgiving Trump though media outlets across the United States acknowledged Biden was the loser and the former President clear winner by more than a mile and a half. The debate was brutal in an understated manner. The moderators gave the two candidates the chance to clobber each other without imposing themselves on the two combatants and from what was on show Trump took full advantage.
The Democrats’ worries about Biden’s age and mental agility, which is different from mental acuity, largely came true. President Joe Biden’s descent into incoherence spelled doom. The President’s mind, more than once, meandered and wandered as if with a mind of its own, unable to stay on path. Apparently, the “preparations” at Camp David, the presidential retreat, left Biden more like a zombie, an answering machine, rather than as a sharp as nails super-duper debater.
President Joe Biden’s age stayed with him throughout the 90-minute debate. In contrast, former President Trump raced through with his answer to the same question without old age casting a shadow on his mental acuity. Trump said he had “aced” not one but “two cognitive tests” even as the CNN Presidential Debate was getting closer and closer. At least one Democrat strategist remarked that President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be missing “Air Force One” come November.
Meaning, it is only in the United States of America that the Presidential Stage can be dismantled for one candidate by a debate with both candidates at each other’s throat. Americans look forward to and pay attention to the candidates’ views and plans for the country spelled out in the debates. The debates lay bare the candidates’ inner makings. And with a skilled moderator asking the questions, there is no escaping public scrutiny. Victory in even one Presidential debate can make or break a potential White House residency.
Debates won’t work in India. It is unimaginable in China and Russia. Presidential debates are “Only in America” like the saying goes. Some media are going with the “trading insults” narrative with this CNN Presidential Debate with Donald Trump getting more flak than President Joe Biden, who unfortunately had to fight an overnight cold and a “raspy voice”. What went wrong for the media was that Trump kept his cool and refused to grab Biden by the scruff of his neck.
In fact, to tell the truth, Trump actually could succeed in keeping President Biden in check because of the rules of the debate set by CNN. Moderators Tapper and Bash faced flak, later after the debate, for being lacklustre like the Dodo. CNN might have got unprecedented viewing numbers but the moderators could have at least pasted smiles on their “mugs”. It was ironic that Trump who had taken CNN to the Russian cleaners got away with the accusation “Russia, Russia, Russia” twice during the debate.
So what’s in store? Among takeaways there is talk of Democrats panicking and President Joe Biden giving them the creeps by saying “We won the debate” and “We have to defeat this guy, which we can if you are with me”. Most Democratic strategists have given up on Joe Biden. They should blame themselves for waiting till after the debate to conclude that Biden wasn’t the world-beater they had made him into. The manner in which Biden struggled through the first debate has put a question mark on the second one to be held in September.
That second debate is history even as the first one made history. And one newspaper wrote the epitaph — “Bye Bye Biden”. President Biden’s chances for a second term were dashed – that is the thinking – by his meandering, mumbling and fumbling. Question is whether Biden will be replaced with a more mentally alert Democrat at the top of the Democrat ticket? Talk of Michelle Obama entices the Democrats though she isn’t willing. There is also California Gov Gavin Newsom but Newsom doesn’t want to hurt Biden’s debilitating mental acuity. And Kamala Harris is playing coy.
The debate questions touched abortion, inflation, climate change, foreign affairs and immigration. Trump stole with “confident and forceful” though the media later hit him for misleading with falsehoods. For millions of Democrats, it was painful watching President Joe Biden go down the tube in full public view of a TV audience that must have included the almost entire United States of America — Biden’s halting voice, eyes closed, brow knitted, pupils the size of saucers versus Trump’s assertive diction including the frequent use of “greatest” for himself and the “worst” for Biden.
The number of times President Joe Biden stumbled on his words, he shouldn’t have been standing on his own two feet at the end of the debate, but the President walked off the stage full of oats and brimming with confidence. Appears like Biden is not going out of the Democratic spotlight and Democrats have something to hang on to, after all. There is always the chance of a slip between the cup and the lip. Best of all, Kamala Harris might beat all the odds. (IPA Service)
