The debate on US presidency

On Thursday, as American voters tuned in to their television sets and devices to watch the presidential debate, two questions dominated public consciousness. Was Donald Trump stable and disciplined enough to deliver a performance on stage for 90 minutes, without being a bully and alienating swing voters in swing states? Was Joe Biden physically healthy and mentally coherent enough to communicate effectively, and show that he could be trusted with one of the world’s most high-pressure jobs for another four years when he would be 86? By the end of the first presidential debate, the voters had tentative answers.

Trump’s record and rhetoric remain deeply disturbing. By one account, he lied over two dozen times in the 90-minute debate on issues ranging from his economic and foreign policy record to abortion and immigration. He refused to either accept the 2020 election results and condemn the attack on the US Capitol or commit to accepting the outcome of the 2024 election results. He had little to say on some of the world’s most pressing challenges, particularly the climate crisis; instead, he defended his decision to walk out of the Paris climate accord and sought to bracket Russia, China and India in the same category as climate freeloaders while suggesting that the agreement mandated the US to have responsibilities, a lie. Trump didn’t explain how an across-the-board tariff increase that he has promised if elected would help either the American economy or conform to global trading rules. And the former president did not have specific answers on how he would end the war in Ukraine, except to brag that he would do it by January. He also offered little clue of what he thought of Israel’s war in Gaza, or even if it should end at all. Yet, and this is the remarkable feature of American politics at the moment, Trump won the debate. He won because, irrespective of the nature of one’s ideological agreements or disagreements with him or views on his political rhetoric and tactics, the 45th US President seemed like he was in control. It seemed like he was attuned to the concerns of American citizens on immigration and inflation and frustration with external entanglements. He was, by his dismally low standards, disciplined as he kept his performative volatility under check.

Biden lost. And the 46th President of the US lost not as much because of the substance of his policies as his utter failure to articulate his worldview and record. From his wobbly walk to the stage to his meandering sentences, from his weak rebuttal of Trump to his inability to even leverage issues on which Democrats score high such as abortion, Biden’s performance will go down as a case study of what not to do at debates and how not to communicate in politics. In President Biden’s case, this failure is a direct product of his age, which will lead to even swing voters growing sceptical of his ability to complete a second term. Being the American president requires exercising judgment on the most difficult issues, all the time. And if American citizens don’t believe that a candidate is mentally sharp enough to exercise that judgment, that’s a problem. If he truly believes that Trump’s candidacy represents a threat to democracy, Biden must voluntarily step aside, free his delegates and, let the Democratic Party choose a candidate at the convention through an open electoral process. It is late. But shaking up the race late may help Democrats to galvanise their base and put up a contest in November. Otherwise, they can get ready for Trump’s return to the White House.