President Joe Biden on Memorial Day 2024
Last night, President Joe Biden and Donald Trump held their first presidential debate of 2024. We had predicted that the debate, hosted by CNN at its Atlanta studios with no live audience, would be “a bust.” It was, but in a slightly different way than we had thought. Many viewers and analysts seem to agree that Trump told tons of lies but was forceful and dynamic, and Biden told the truth but gave a very weak performance. We then learned afterward that Biden had a cold, which gave him a hoarse voice and other ill effects that hindered his performance.
The election is happening in just over four months, and a second, and probably final, debate between Biden and Trump is scheduled for September 10 on ABC. Presumably, Trump feels he did just fine last night and doesn’t have to do anything different next time. Thus, the question for Biden and the Democrats is, what lessons can be learned, and what is the best course going forward to maximize the chances of winning the election? Several things come to mind:
–It might have been effective if President Biden had said something at the beginning like, “folks, I’m a bit under the weather tonight with a cold, but nothing will stop me from fighting for the American people every day.” Indeed, Biden could have added a zinger like, “you know, I’ve been very busy meeting world leaders and supporting our military families at Normandy, rather than staying home playing golf.”
–Many people have skewered CNN for allowing Trump to lie so many times during the debate. For example, one of the biggest whoppers Trump kept repeating was that the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowed babies to be murdered after they are born, and that “every legal scholar” thus wanted Roe v. Wade overturned. This lack of on-air fact-checking hurt CNN’s credibility, and it was lazy at best. Unfortunately, the campaigns had agreed in advance with CNN’s desire not to fact-check in live time during the debate. That of course favors the candidate who tells lies.
–On the subject of Trump’s lies, viewers also noted that Trump ran on an on, through many disparate statements and lies, in each of his responses to the moderators’ questions. In politics, this is often referred to as the “Gish Gallop.” It is designed to tie one’s opponent in knots, confusing and rendering them unable effectively to respond or to get their own points across. However, this behavior was not new for Trump. Thus, it was something for which Biden’s team should have better prepared him.
–Meanwhile, Biden seemed over-prepared with facts and figures. To make matters worse, viewers reported that Biden rushed through such information, apparently trying to jam it into the allotted time. The same type of thing happened to President Barack Obama in 2012, and to President Ronald Reagan in 1984, in their respective first presidential debates when running for re-election. In both cases, their campaigns regrouped, and they won re-election. In Reagan’s case, the campaign apparently listened to many Republicans who said, for the next debate, “let Reagan be Reagan,” meaning, let Reagan show his natural personality and political skills, and express his values, rather than being stuffed with facts and figures. That could also work well for President Biden.
–Related to the previous point, make sure President Biden gets plenty of rest. Whether it’s flying to Normandy or flying to California for a fundraiser, Biden’s schedule lately would exhaust a 40 year-old. The schedule, especially the purely political events, should be loosened slightly where possible.
–Go on offense. It’s our Messaging Maxim #1. That is what Trump did from the beginning last night, and it worked. In Biden’s case, for example, he could have mentioned early on that, during the 2020 Trump Recession, our economy contracted 31 percent, the stock market tanked, and we lost millions of jobs. Likewise, it took Biden about an hour to call Trump “a convicted felon.” He should have said it from the very beginning, and should have repeated it many times thereafter.
In short, one bad debate is not likely to kill President Biden’s chances of winning the election, but for the next debate, changes are needed.
Photo by U.S. Secretary of Defense, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/pHZrCN
