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I didn't see the debate, so I don't know how awful it went for Biden, and I don't generally follow presidential debates, but I just wanted to ask if it's possible that all of this might blow over, and no one will even think of it come next debate, or even in a week. Sure, if Biden is really on death's door, he'll probably appear in poor condition in future events, too. But on the other hand, politicians oscillate in their presentability sometimes, and it doesn't always bear out. People cling to the latest thing saying "this is the most important event ever!", and at least 80% of the time, it ends up not being the most important event ever. Other politicians have had weird moments before, like when Hillary suffered some sort of temporary mental break or heat stroke or something during an interview back in 2016ish (I can't seem to find the video) and seemed completely unaware of her surroundings for a minute or two.
I've said this before, but man, I wish we could pause time and not move forward into election season. No matter what the outcome is, I'm going to feel terrible.
These things usually don't matter, until they do. Trump was the first presidential candidate in decades to win his primary without endorsements, and to become president without experience in any elected office. Debates usually don't move the needle much, or in a permanent fashion... Until now.
Lots of voters have expressed concern over Biden's age. Lots of Democrats have. And so far they've done an alright job of sowing doubt about the veracity of that claim. So to see him, mumbling and stumbling, makes a difference.
The Nixon/Kennedy debates were said to have moved the needle also. It's not new. The Reagan/Mondale debates probably would have moved the needle if it wasn't already pegged.
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I don't think it went quite as bad for Biden as had been suggested (he did make some cogent points and even landed a couple of good hits) but he was visibly struggling to keep up and because the position of the Whitehouse plus much of the mainstream media up to this point has been that anyone expressing doubts about Biden's health and vitality is a russian troll, it wasn't a good look. In order to meet expectations he needed to show up and kick ass, not just barely hold on.
Edit to add: short version is that Trump showed up and appeared to be much more prepared and ready to play than Biden did.
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It appears that the Democratic establishment has recovered and is backing Joe's horse again. They're going to try to memory hole this but there is still the matter of the second debate. I think it goes much like the first, but the spin will be fixed this time. Something along the lines of "Comeback Kid! Biden sparkles in second debate". And if Biden's performance was like last night's they might just pull it off.
But it's not impossible that it goes even worse. The poor guy must have trouble simply standing at a podium for two hours. He seems to be vanishing before our eyes. I have no idea how he makes it another year, let alone 4.5.
Well at least we have some interesting horse race aspects this time around.
In the end, I'm hoping for a Trump landslide as I think that's the only path that leads to introspection, and then hopefully healing. I've come to terms with him personally. He's a liar and a braggart with the attention span of a goldfish. But he's his own man, and he's not evil. And sometimes that's enough.
I really hope you are right. But the only introspection we got last time was "Trump's election proves the legacy of racism, sexism, colonialism, xenophobia, homophobia etc is real and strong and we need to feel bad/crush fascism"
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