President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump attend the CNN presidential debate on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Andrew Harnick/Getty Images
Let’s be honest. As a Democrat, last night was not the best. I’m not going to lie. My inbound texts and social media feeds were awful last night, starting a few minutes after the debate began. This morning they weren’t much better either. If there’s one thing Democrats are good at, it’s panicking. In fairness, I support Joe Biden with all my heart and soul, but it’s hard to argue that it was a good night for him. Long before the debate ended, Democrats were racking their brains and proposing alternative candidates. Messages were coming in from everywhere – family, friends, top political strategists – suggesting a five-alarm level state of panic.
All I could think about was the night of October 3, 2012, when President Obama debated his first opponent, Governor Romney. As today, the public opinion was that President Obama had definitely lost the debate and may have lost the presidency. Things were so bad that Democrats started claiming that the altitude in Denver may have affected President Obama’s performance (similar to last night’s story about President Biden’s cold). Not pretty, Bob.
In fact, back in 2012, President Obama’s reelection was far from certain. I worked in the White House and vividly remember the challenges we faced: The economy was still recovering from the financial crisis, the Affordable Care Act, derogatorily named Obamacare, was being weaponized by Republicans, and the president’s approval ratings were hovering in the low 40s. We were lagging behind Romney in head-to-head polls.
But when my opponent came forward, everything changed. We aggressively portrayed my opponent as out of touch with ordinary Americans and committed to helping the wealthy. We ultimately won because we made the race a contrast between two very different candidates and two opposing visions for the country. As Joe Biden famously said, “Don’t compare me to God Almighty. Compare me to the other candidates.”
Eric Schultz visits wounded military members and their families with President Barack Obama at Maryland Fisher House at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on August 1, 2019.
Charles Kennedy
And Joe Biden wanted to make sure that happened by proposing a head-to-head debate earlier than ever before. While the post-debate spin is not ideal for the president, we must not lose sight of the bigger picture: Donald Trump and all he represents are back in center stage. This is especially important because, until very recently, many voters did not believe that Trump would actually be the Republican nominee again. Today, too many voters suffer from Trumpnessia. Trumpnessia is the failure to remember how disastrous his first term was. He is the only U.S. president to lose his job, appoint judges who reversed Roe v. Wade, and of course incite the violent insurrection of January 6th.
Last night, Trump called the end of Roe a “great thing” and warned about the January 6Number “I’ve been a big supporter of the Democratic Party, and I’ve been a big supporter of the Democratic Party. I …
Of course, 2024 is a completely different environment than 2012, and the candidates are all 43 years older, and I’ll admit that I wish last night’s debate had gone better. But in fairness, in 2016, all of us good political pundits were raving about Secretary Clinton’s debate performance against Donald Trump. That was pretty much the reaction in Washington. Hillary looked presidential, Trump lost his mind. We all know how that story ends.
Indeed, Washington has a bad habit of overstating the status quo. Many thought the shocking information contained in the special counsel’s report in February would be a game changer. The same happened with President Biden’s State of the Union address. The same happened with President Trump’s 34 felony convictions. All the while, the race remained close. Finally, we are accustomed to September and October debates. Few voters will have the June debates in mind when they cast their ballots.
But make no mistake: This race will be extremely close, and close to the end. In 2020, Joe Biden won Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin by roughly 40,000 votes. It will probably be just as close this November. While that’s not good for my blood pressure, it means Democrats can and should get the votes they need to win.
We must do a better job of informing voters about alternatives.
Eric Schultz is a Washington-based political strategist and senior adviser to President Barack Obama. He is the subject of HBO’s InheritanceNetflix Designated Survivorr and more recently A24 civil war.
