One of the great things about living here on earth one is that you can admit something didn't go as planned and then move on to fix it. It is undeniable that President Joe Biden had an awful night last night at the first and likely only debate between himself and former President Trump. He was ashen, incoherent, mumbled, and easily lost his train of thought. In fairness he did seem to get stronger by the end but the damage was already done. This was not the start the campaign was hoping for.
The entire Democratic Party and its followers desperately wanted to see State of the Union Joe and instead they got too old Joe. So, what do we take from this disaster that will be fixable and hopefully get the party across the finish line with another victory in November.
First, the party can take comfort that other sitting Presidents had bad first debates and were able to recover and get re-elected. Bush II and Obama both flopped in their first debates and ended up wining their elections comfortably. The difference was that they both had fairly good leads going in to the debates while Biden has been even or trailing so that will make it tougher to be sure.
What needs to happen is that the campaign should do two things in the next forty eight hours, first admit they had a train wreck, whether Biden had a cold or not, and then get him on the campaign trail and deliver several forceful speeches that will make everyone forget his poor performance last night. He showed some of that in his after debate watch party showing where he was engaging and funny and alert. Bring that guy out immediately.
Next they will need to put out strong ads showing what he has accomplished in the past four years while showing how much Trump is a mess and remind everyone why we were exhausted after his four years in office by showing his lowlights. It is time to take the gloves off and start pointing out Trumps faults and dangers. There is still plenty of time to right this ship but it needs to start with a strong plan today.
The other things that will happen shortly that will have some effect on the campaign will be Trump at rally's talking more crazy talk that will scare people and most importantly on July 11th he will be sentenced in the hush money trial conviction. If the judge gives him prison time, which is very likely, it will give pause to many people on the fence about him. We can all want a strong leader but nobody wants a convicted felon sitting in jail to become President. This will be very damaging to Trump and the polls will reflect some movement to be sure.
This morning many people are openly calling for Biden to step aside. Friends, that is not going to happen. Others are demanding an open convention, that is not going to happen either. We have four months before the elections, eight lifetimes in politics, and many things can and will happen to change the complexion of this race multiple times before November 5th. Like VP Harris and Governor Newsome both said last night, ninety minutes of a debate is not going to undo the three and a half years of accomplishments for Biden. The party needs to rally around him. His supporters need to do the same and the campaign needs to get him back on his footing and show the country he still has it in him to handle four more years.
The alternative is just not an option.
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