“Rather than dispel concerns about his age, Biden made it the central issue.”

[Troy]

On my email this morning from the New York Times:

 

	By German Lopez

Donald Trump and President Biden Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Affirming fears

After last night, many Democrats are panicked.

 

They hoped that President Biden, 81, could convince voters that his age was nothing to worry about. That he could counter Donald Trump’s wild accusations and relentless falsehoods with confidence. He didn’t.

 

Biden’s voice was hoarse and halting. His answers were often unclear, and he struggled to finish his thoughts. “Rather than dispel concerns about his age,” wrote my colleague Peter Baker, Biden “made it the central issue.”

 

Some Democrats are now pushing for him to drop out of the race. “Biden is about to face a crescendo of calls to step aside,” a Democratic strategist told Peter. “Joe had a deep well of affection among Democrats. It has run dry.”

 

Donald Trump, 78, delivered his false statements with conviction, affirming many voters’ concerns about his character and the threat he poses for democracy.

 

Trump claimed that immigrants had driven up crime; rates of crime and murder have dropped. He claimed that Iran was “broke” when he was president; it was not. He claimed that Biden would allow abortions even after the birth of a child; Biden doesn’t support that. (Read a fact-check of many more of Trump’s and Biden’s claims.)

 

The debate at times turned ugly. Trump and Biden questioned each other’s competence. Each suggested that the other would start World War III. They even argued about their golfing skills.

 

For 90 minutes in Atlanta, Biden and Trump “debated inflation and immigration, abortion and addiction,” wrote my colleague Lisa Lerer, who covers national politics. “Yet the extraordinary rematch between two presidents — two men who are the oldest candidates to ever seek the White House and who did nothing to conceal their hatred for each other — put on stark display the reasons the contest has repelled swaths of Americans.”

 

The rest of today’s newsletter summarizes The Times’s coverage of the debate, including the biggest moments and the candidates’ policy differences.

More on the debate

Biden struggled to articulate policy specifics, statistics and rebuttals, often stumbling or misspeaking. (His campaign said he had a cold.) Early in the debate, Biden seemed to lose his train of thought and said, “We finally beat Medicare.” The Biden campaign’s demand that each candidate’s mic be muted when it wasn’t their turn to talk seemed to help Trump. He largely waited to speak and seemed to enjoy himself. Trump seized on Biden’s halting speech, saying at one point: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either.” Biden seemed to get steadier as the debate went on, saying Trump had “the morals of an alley cat” and calling him a convicted felon who “snapped” after losing the 2020 election. Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of the November election, saying he would do so only “if it’s a fair, and legal, and good election.” Read more takeaways.

More Times coverage

By The New York Times

The candidates clashed over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, climate change, Ukraine and more. See how long they spent on each topic.

Asked to address voters’ concerns about their age, Biden called Trump “three years younger, and a lot less competent,” while Trump claimed to have aced cognitive tests. “It’s going to be a very scary November”: The debate left Democratic voters, including staunch Biden supporters, stunned and dispirited. Republicans were jubilant.

Commentary

Trump “won it by forfeit,” the Times Opinion columnist Carlos Lozada wrote. “The Biden of 2020, even the Biden of this year’s State of the Union, did not show up.” Dan McCarthy argued that “Trump won as the more commanding presence, with a tighter focus on his themes, particularly immigration.” Read other Opinion writers’ reactions. The Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who calls Biden a friend, argues that he should drop out. Biden “had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight,” former senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said on MSNBC. “Almost every president loses the first debate of his re-election campaign,” the historian Brian Rosenwald wrote. “They’re used to being in a bubble where few people question them.” “Biden won the debate on policy but lost it on presentation,” 538’s G. Elliott Morris and Kaleigh Rogers wrote. “Trump was increasing incoherent and deranged as the debate went on, and Trump’s extremism was on full display,” the Democratic strategist Geoff Garin wrote. In a post-debate CNN poll, two-thirds of voters who watched said Trump had won, but few said it had changed their minds about which candidate to vote for.

[ProfD]

Yep.  As I mentioned in the debate thread, it was sad and pathetic display. 

 

The article points out the difference between the POTUS PJB who showed up for the State of the Union address a few months ago and the person we saw and heard last night.

 

Even the most bipartisan news media outlets try to hide the most embarrassing POTUS miscues. 

 

The folks most intimately aware of POTUS PJB's mental acuity and physical fitness know the real deal. 

 

The Dems may be wiling to keep PPJB propped up for as long as the Weekend at Bernie's routine works. 

 

I still think Dems will find a way of getting PPJB to tap out and step aside before November.

[Troy]

4 hours ago, ProfD said:

I still think Dems will find a way of getting PPJB to tap out and step aside before November.

 

One can only hope... but unless he croaks it will be the same as the situation RGB Cynique decribed.

[ProfD]

33 minutes ago, Troy said:

 

One can only hope... but unless he croaks it will be the same as the situation RGB Cynique decribed.

Agreed. 

 

I certainly would not be surprised if he decided to stay in and the Dems support it. 

 

If PPJB remains the Dem nominee, that will make it easier for POTUS OJ to get re-elected.