The former vice president didn’t deliver a stellar performance, but he largely executed his goal of providing a stable contrast to his rival.
Joseph R. Biden Jr. cast the first presidential debate as a leadership test for President Trump; Mr. Trump framed it as cognitive test for a supposedly senile Mr. Biden. One of them passed. While Mr. Biden did not deliver a stellar performance on Tuesday — and the mud-spattered spectacle in Cleveland left neither participant unsullied — he easily surpassed the low expectations set for him by a Trump campaign that had portrayed him as a doddering weakling incapable of facing an alpha president. Mr. Biden arguably had more to lose going in: He was shaky in some primary debates and has kept a light public schedule and a relatively low profile since securing the Democratic nomination, in part to allow his opponent, who craves the spotlight, to roast in it alone. But the former vice president, who turns 78 in November, stood comfortably at the lectern for 90 minutes — a capacity Trump aides had questioned leading up to the debate. And while he was often overshadowed and outshouted, he largely executed his main goal of presenting a stable contrast to the man beside him, despite a few flustered word fumbles and angry outbursts in which he called the heckling president a “clown” and a “fool.” At no point did Mr. Biden match the portrait his enemies had painted of him as disoriented, demented, drugged or unable to cogently answer any of the policy questions put to him, even as Mr. Trump blared into his right ear like a boombox with a busted volume knob. It was noteworthy that Trump stalwarts like Sean Hannity of Fox News, who have loudly questioned Mr. Biden’s mental acuity, mostly avoided the topic in post-debate wrap-ups. “Biden was really, really well prepared — it was clear that he anticipated Trump’s interruptions, and settled on a strategy of focusing on the camera or Chris Wallace rather than staring back at him,” said Alex Conant, a veteran Republican strategist who helped prepare Senator Marco Rubio of Florida for his debates against Mr. Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries. “Look, if Trump had been able to wipe the floor with him, the whole narrative today wouldn’t be about a chaotic debate, or about Trump’s performance, it would be about Biden not standing up to Trump — and the media would be asking if Biden is too old for the job,” Mr. Conant said. “But Biden did not let that happen.” Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, saw their clash in very different terms, saying in a statement after the debate that Mr. Biden “was revealed as too weak to be president and spent most of the evening on his heels.” But that opinion was not widely shared, even among Mr.
