Biden ‘BEAT’ Medicare?
I predicted that in order to reassure voters ahead of Thursday’s debate, the two candidates would need to overcome their own darkest impulses. They would need to appeal to voters who are independent and doubtful of the suburbs, as well as those who have been rusty after years away from the debating platform. It was necessary to reassure this little portion of voters who are still unsure in a variety of ways.
They needed to see a confident, poised, and steady speaker in President Joe Biden to help him overcome a record that the majority of voters found unsatisfactory. As he had done at the State of the Union, they wanted to see a man who allayed doubts about his age or at least bought them some time.
They wanted to see a restrained and controlled man from former President Donald Trump, someone who could balance his record against that of Joe Biden while reining in his flamboyant personality traits and propensity to revisit his worst episodes and focus on 2020.
The State of the Union version of both men was the most opportune one to appear. The Union’s State Though unsettlingly loud, Biden is more animated and fluid and has a few policy arguments at his disposal. The Union is just a few ad-libs and more restrained, but still very much Trump. Out of all those men, just one turned up, and the difference was obvious. The debate’s narrative was conveyed by the two men’s dissimilar tones throughout their opening remarks.
Biden seemed to lose his train of thought less than fifteen minutes into the debate when he concluded one of his points with the absurd non sequitur, “And we finally beat Medicare.”
Trump took advantage of the situation, grinning as he waited for Biden to respond before criticizing how Biden “beat Medicare.” He killed it with a beating.”
Along with a debate rule that shut off microphones to avoid crosstalk, Trump’s unusual reserve allowed the incumbent president to bury himself rather than being saved by his remarks. In a deplorable moment, Biden just deleted the names of the 13 American military soldiers who lost their lives during the catastrophic pullout at the Abbey Gate in Afghanistan.
“Truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have — this decade — any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did.”
Not only was Biden’s reference to one of his most egregious and fatal mistakes an inadvertent oversight, but Trump also had the opportunity to respond:
“And with regard to Afghanistan, I was leaving the country, but we were leaving with honor, fortitude, and authority. It was the most humiliating day in our nation’s history when he managed to escape.”
