Unfortunately the "winner" is determined by people who get all worked about things like "binders full of women". Things taken out of context, soundbites, blurbs, snarky comments, insults, all carry far more weight than the meat of the arguments. In this Trump excels. He is a master of ignoring reality and using hyperbole and quips to hamstring his opponents. He "won" a lot of the debates last year while basically saying nothing, other than to point out how much win he has and how much anyone else sucks for any of a million made-up reasons. I think Joe will not be able to stand toe-to-toe with a jr. high-schooler who is adept at slinging burns. He will be out of his depth the lower Trump sinks. No matter what it will be an ugly affair.
Cool. Well, you know yourself that it’s all about marketing, and the selling, of a president. It’s been this way for awhile, never more so since the advent of television. And these appeals will always be to the emotions, not to the intellect. Sure, Trump is likely to win the entertainment contest, debate as entertainment. And too much of the American electorate relate to an election predominantly from their emotions, not their intellect. Yes, people do consider where they themselves stand on issues, and which candidate best reflects their own position. But, in Trump, we have Reality TV writ large in the form of the very first Reality TV president. Celebrity culture produced the first celebrity tv president. And he is good at his act, low brow though it is. Sadly, very sadly I think, he understands the painful truth that large swaths of our electorate are flat out low brow citizens.
But, really my argument was this: in Biden, Americans will see someone who actually understands the issues, how government works, what are the core values and representations of American foreign policy, etc. The audience will not be 100% people looking to be swayed by a clown attacking elites. The public will at least see how far short in requisite qualifications Trump really is. Despite his own flaws, Biden can talk about the issues intelligently. Trump is so non curious as a president, he apparently takes his briefings in something like a Sunday comics version. And that is going to show, if the moderators don’t lob cupcake questions his way.
Now, if we are at the stage in our history that the irrational and emotional needs of an electorate ignorant over what constitutes good government is such that the electorate chooses Trump anyway for a second term, than America deserves what it gets I guess.
But, yes, it is likely Trump will perform. I do not believe he will physically walk over to Biden and loom over him, as he did to Hillary. And, I think we may be in for a surprise, because I think Biden is well capable of putting that clown on the spot. I think Biden can actually make Trump look like a damn fool.
www.nytimes.com
