Kamala Harris Was the Real Winner of Last Night’s Debate
Look, nobody wants to see Vice President Kamala Harris as president. She’s a cop in a past life, a flop as vice president, and as phony as they come, with enough political baggage to fill a few Acela trains. Her presidential campaign four years ago was an unmitigated dud, parlayed into the vice presidency only by the unique demands of 2020. But after last night’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Harris’ chances of soon holding top office—or at least getting the opportunity to battle Trump for it—skyrocketed.
To say that the debate was disastrous for Biden is accurate, but somehow too weak. It’s hard to describe, for those who weren’t watching, just how bad Biden looked, sounded, and came across, or just how resoundingly Trump won the night.
During the 2020 presidential debates, Biden’s strength was conveying compassion to Trump’s callousness, and being the adult in the room to Trump’s chaos agent. Last night, we saw none of that. Trump showed an uncharacteristic amount of message discipline, sticking to less radical (for him, at least) positions and largely avoiding the kind of off-the-cuff bravado, extremism, or crudeness that can turn ordinary voters off.
Oh, sure, just about every other sentence out of Trump’s mouth was misinformation at best. But he said it with gusto and a convincing show of truthiness—a performance that conveyed knowledge mixed with empathy and outrage on behalf of the people, so long as you don’t follow politics or policy closely (which most Americans don’t).
Biden, in comparison, appeared dazed and frequently incoherent, mixed with episodes where he came off peevish like someone’s grandpa when they see kids wearing baggy pants. Even when Biden knew what he was talking about, he came across weirdly haltering, an unconvincing portrayal of accuracy or honesty.
Some Democratic pundits (and Harris) will tell you that doesn’t matter—that we should pay attention to the content of the two candidates’ messages, not the way in which they were delivered. I don’t think that’s quite right (there is substance in style) but it would be nice if substance carried more weight. Humans thrive on vibes, though, and all the shoulds in the world can’t change that, nor will scolding people about what they should pay attention to win them over.
Besides, the substance of Biden’s message was often inscrutable (and on issues like immigration and tariffs, he failed to offer a position radically different than that taken by Trump).
Do the American people want a confident liar or an earnest inchoate? Those were the choices on display.
The irony here is that Democrats and Biden folks wanted this early debate. The idea was that it would both boost Biden’s poll numbers when swing voters once again saw him face-to-face with Trump and further cement the idea of Biden as the party’s no-backing-out choice. Now the former appears a fever dream, and even the latter is not so sure.
Before last night, the idea that Biden backing down seemed nonexistent. Now, it seems like the only chance they have (even if still rather unlikely). The Biden we saw last night isn’t going to win over anyone for whom there’s any sort of decision to be made.
Post-debate, in public and in private, even many Democrats couldn’t deny how poorly it had gone for Biden, and how absolutely screwed the party
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