Early on the morning of June 28, as I was preparing to drop my daughter at school, I received a WhatsApp call from an old friend in Washington, DC. “We are ****ed, Sachin, we are ****ed,” he screamed on the phone, and then, as dramatically, hung up the call. Hundreds of thousands of Americans said the exact same thing after watching the CNN-hosted first presidential debate between current White House resident Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, both of whom are pitted against each other for the second time this November.
US presidential debates have always been acrimonious, but they were also always theatre. TV hosts asked both hard and soft questions, and candidates were forced to respond. Yesterday’s confrontation, on the other hand, not only lacked theatre, it was plain boring and had zero substance. It was embarrassing to even watch.
On the one hand, there was Trump — his lies and prevarications are no longer a surprise — who had nothing to offer to the country’s political discourse apart from illogical and falsehoods-filled rants. His opponent, the 81-year-old Biden, amplified every fear that has been expressed about him during this campaign — he is old, incoherent, tired, and he has nothing new to offer to a country in dire need of overhaul across some of the most important issues affecting it.
Until now, this election seemed like one where Americans will vote not for something or someone, but against their hated candidate. The Republican base will vote against Biden and vice-versa. Biden’s performance has changed all that. No one expected Trump to perform a Jiddu Krishnamurti on stage, but Biden had a handicap — he is inherently a decent person and people would have forgiven the age factor had he responded well to questions posed by CNN editors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Biden could not even string a few sentences together without getting confused between World War I and World War II or some other fact. His meandering answers gave no respite to even his staunchest supporters. It was hard to watch. What should America do, then? To be sure, the ball is in the Democrats’ court. If they continue with Biden, they would have already handed the White House back to the Republicans before a single vote is cast.
Before the convention to formalise Biden’s nomination as the party’s presidential candidate in Chicago this August, senior leaders must prevail upon Biden to hang up his boots and give way to someone young. The logical and conventional choice would be Vice President Kamala Harris. But even the Democrats know that Harris does not have broad support. Who then? Well, first, the Democrats simply have to move fast. By the weekend, the party would have faced intense criticism from the media, its opponents, and even its supporters. If there is no damage control now, the Dems might as well wave the white flag and concede the November election.
One way to look at damage control is to quickly convince Biden to opt out. He will resist, but frankly, it is a fait accompli, a Hobson’s choice. Next, get party leaders to announce their candidature. Knowing the members of the Democratic Party, the following five people are the likely candidates: Pete Buttigieg (current Transportation Secretary in the Biden cabinet), Gavin Newsom (current Governor of California), Gretchen Whitmer (current Governor of Michigan), Amy Klobuchar (current Senator from Minnesota) and Cory Booker (current Senator from New Jersey and a former presidential aspirant).
There is a sixth possibility — Raphael Warnock, the Senator from Georgia. The lackluster debate is not the only reason the Democrats have to tell Biden to walk away. The current administration has miserably failed to make the war in Gaza stop or prevent the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians. In fact, there is a growing movement among Arab Americans to boycott the November election. There is simultaneous pushback from influential sections of the Jewish community to go soft on Israel. Biden is literally caught balancing between two stools, and we all know what happens to people who attempt this stunt.
In the debate, Biden fumbled on abortion, immigration, climate, border control, and even on issues like trade, unemployment, and inflation where Biden seemingly had the upper hand, he did not appeal at all to the listeners. His voice was raspy, as if he had just woken up, and his body language was so limp that Trump just walked all over him on these aspects.
In fact, Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist-turned-ardent Biden supporter, told the Associated Press after the debate, “That was the worst performance in the history of televised presidential debates”.
He is not exaggerating. The only other time a presidential candidate fumbled visibly to this extent was when George H W Bush looked at his watch a couple of times during his debate with prospective President Bill Clinton. Even then, Bush Sr fumbled twice at the most. With Biden, however, it was like an avalanche dropping down a mountain, there was just no respite. President Joe Biden, evidently, has no choice; he cannot be Candidate Joe Biden again.
Sachin Kalbag, Senior Fellow at The Takshashila Institution, is a former Washington Correspondent and editor of Indian newspapers. Email: sachin@takshashila.org.in. Twitter: @SachinKalbag
