Even before this week’s Iowa caucuses, some of us have been looking forward to this fall’s presidential debates for unusual reasons.
Not for the mind-numbing recitations of policy talking points. Not to witness the predictable, pointed partisanship of moderator questions. Not to spot one candidate’s rehearsed zinger that ends up being the only memorable thing from such a reality TV show.
But we are eager to see two things in particular, assuming both front-runners stay where they are:
- How the reality TV show veteran Donald Trump showboats this time in his third presidential election cycle.
- And how spectacularly awful are the gaffes, gaps, and guffaws of Joe Biden. He is unable to coherently read a teleprompter script in extra-large type right in front of his face. And he won't even have that in a debate.
Nor can Biden answer real media questions that his office hasn’t pre-approved. So we’re left trying to track the off-topic rhetorical ramblings that his addled mind seizes on as relevant to share at odd times with multiple millions of puzzled viewers.
The debate drinking game will be to down a shot each time he says “Anyway” as the lame conclusion to these dead-end declarations.
Biden does this routinely now in virtually every public appearance, which explains his staff's Pepcid consumption. Look at the photo above of the commander in chief, showing off his cold drink.
The question is: Can an 81-year-old Democrat, who’s spent almost 40 percent of his term on vacation, stand under the bright lights for 90 minutes of heated interrogation and back-and-forths with his pugnacious predecessor?
Or how would an addled Biden fare if Republicans suddenly grew savvy and nominated a sharp, fresh-faced younger candidate who has no legal baggage like Trump?
Nikki Haley is a former two-term governor and ambassador and effective debater 30 years younger than Biden. Ron DeSantis is a Navy veteran and sitting governor recently reelected overwhelmingly, who is six years younger even than Haley.
I’m betting Biden can’t. Whoever is telling the commander in chief what to do knows this. And the White House team that gave us the now infamous set of Bidenomics that he's so persistently flogging in vain will find some way to keep Joe Biden off any debate stage this autumn.
These quadrennial set-tos have become de rigueur American political rituals all the way down to mayors’ races ever since they began in 1960 with Vice President Richard Nixon and Sen. John Kennedy.
SEE: Examining That TV Show That Changed American Politics Forever
Because they are on the visual medium of television, the debates emphasize optics far more than content. Americans watch better than they listen.
Debates have occurred, however, in every presidential election since then except two – the Lyndon Johnson-Barry Goldwater contest in 1964 and the Richard Nixon-George McGovern contest of 1972.
Acutely sensing looming landslides, neither incumbent president agreed to debate in those cycles. And they got away with it.
This cycle’s fall debates have already been scheduled: Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas; Oct. 1 in Petersburg, Virginia.; and Oct. 9 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The vice-presidential debate is set for Easton, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 25.
If Joe Biden is actually the nominee, I cannot imagine the Democrat Party risking one of his haunting brain freezes with that half-open mouth and those empty eyes on national television.
He disappears for long periods, looks and acts frail when he is physically present, and his “work schedules” are not exactly demanding. Last week on Wednesday, besides the daily presidential intelligence update, Biden had lunch with Kamala Harris.
And that’s it.
The next day, he had nothing else. This weekend, he's back on vacation.
Even before primary voting begins, we’re already witnessing a setup for the debate dodge. See, Democrats will say the 77-year-old Republican former president isn’t worth the time or dignity of a debate with the 81-year-old Biden.
“It’s just an opportunity for (Trump) to display his extremism,” according to Delaware Sen. Chris Coons.
It’s quite generous of another Democrat senator from Delaware to save American voters from seeing Trump for themselves and making up their own minds.
Unfortunately for Republicans, if Trump’s dominant poll leads hold up through this primary season and he becomes the 2024 nominee, the former president himself has handed Democrats a handy cover for dodging the fall debates: Trump himself dodged all of his party’s debates so far.
The excuse being Trump’s hypothetical lead in media polls is so large he doesn’t need to grace competitors with his presence and the accompanying media exposure.
But that, too, denies Republicans a chance to see the former president go toe-to-toe onstage with Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
Joe Biden, however, has a more imminent problem long before fall. He faces a possibly damaging New Hampshire primary in a week.
Biden’s not done well there, finishing fifth in the 2020 primary. He was so determined to outmaneuver New Hampshire this time, he arranged for South Carolina to become the first Democrat primary.
New Hampshire was so determined to go first, however, it moved its primary in front of South Carolina.
But, oops, Biden did not register as a candidate in New Hampshire. So, he faces the embarrassing likelihood of finishing there far behind challenger Dean Phillips, the little-known representative from Minnesota.
Attempting to prevent that, the Democratic National Committee tried unsuccessfully to convince the state to cancel or delay its primary until after South Carolina. Anyone who’s ever visited New Hampshire in political season knows that would not go over well.
It didn’t.
For reasons that are quaintly important in New Hampshire, the state actually has a law saying its primary must be held before any other anywhere. This is New Hampshire's moment of relevance every Leap Year.
So now, national Democrats are desperate to prevent a voter rejection of Joe Biden 11 days before his scheduled grand victory down south. Party officials are urging members to ignore their own Biden-less primary in the Granite State as a “meaningless” exercise.
This prompted the state’s attorney general to issue a cease-and-desist letter accusing Democrats of violating state law by attempting voter suppression.
And you thought U.S. politics were boring.
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