The debate went terribly for President Joe Biden. Now, the only questions that matter are does Biden have what it takes to recover, and what do the Democrats need to do if it he doesn’t?
Let’s agree on the obvious: the debate went terribly for President Joe Biden.
No, that may not be entirely fair: there is a lot more media piling-on today than his performance deserves; the moderators failed to put former President Donald Trump’s criminal conviction front and center as they should have; and Trump’s fusillade of lies, inane policy, and meandering word salads should have every Republican with integrity cringing in shame.
But political perception drives reality. The perception—more than a little merited—that when the lights were brightest Biden did not display the faculties needed to still be president is going to be crammed into voters’ minds in the months ahead via media coverage and Trump ads. So, the reality is that unless they do something significant and soon, the Biden campaign is going to have to scale a vertical wall in the middle of what was already an uphill climb.
Now, the only questions that matter are does Biden have what it takes to recover, and what do the Democrats need to do if it he doesn’t?
To be clear, there is a pathway to recover from a bad debate. Reagan did it. Obama did it. They owned their performance. They deflected criticism with self-deprecating humor (Obama: “I felt really well rested after the nice long nap I had in the first debate”). And then they demonstrated that, in fact, they did have what it takes.
But for Biden to do it, his team needs to be able to immediately get him in front of cameras, including at least a few where he may get tough, unprepared-for questions. They need to get him out at public events, delivering the kind of consistent, focused attack on Trump’s criminality and extremism that he didn’t do in the debate. They need to show that he’s got it, and simply had a bad night.
