Don’t panic! Biden is a disappointment with too many issues | Opinion

I remember the night of October 3, 2012 very well. All my friends and family were panicking. People online were panicking. President Barack Obama had totally botched his first debate with Romney. I was desperately trying to rationalize that it wasn’t so bad.

The polls didn’t agree with me. The headlines didn’t agree with me. He was the worst person anyone had ever seen.

That was bad, but it pales in comparison to the terrible performance President Joe Biden put in in the first debate with former President Donald Trump. There’s not much I can write about how bad his performance was beyond what’s already been written. But what seems to be missing from this discussion is this: why He did something really terrible.

It’s easy to blame age, it’s easy to say the reports are right and he’s just shrunk a little, but then the next day he comes out and gives a deflating rally speech and those excuses kind of fall flat.

What I saw during the debates was Joe Biden being loaded with points and statistics and then feeling the pressure of time and not being able to finish them, which resulted in him constantly stumbling over his words, or trying to get to the next point before he had finished the first, and of course not being able to finish his sentences before the time was up.

Case in point: Biden’s response on abortion after Trump touted overturning Roe as a “great thing.” It was an “easy thing” for Biden. Easy to do. His response?

Biden: What you did was terrible.

The fact is that the vast majority of constitutional law scholars supported Roe when it was decided. The idea that they all opposed it is simply absurd.

And this guy is arguing that states should be able to do that. We’re in a state where you don’t even know if you’re pregnant after six weeks, and you can’t go see a doctor, you can’t get a test, and you can’t have a doctor decide what your situation is and if you need help.

The idea that states can do this is like saying we’re giving civil rights back to the states and letting each state have different rules.

Look, a lot of young women are being murdered, including the young woman who was just murdered. He attended the funeral. The idea is spreading that she was murdered by an immigrant, and people are talking about it. But the thing is, there are a lot of young women being raped by their in-laws, their spouses, their brothers and sisters. It’s just ridiculous. And they can’t do anything about it.

And they tried to arrest them as they crossed state lines.

Bash: Thank you.

Let’s unpack this.

The opening part of his response was not prepared. Biden addressed Trump directly: “What you did was terrible.”

It’s not a “Has decency finally run out of steam?” moment, but it is a compelling enough counterargument.

Same for the second part. He’s responding directly to the lie in Trump’s response that all constitutional scholars wanted to give it back to the states. Fine, too.

And then it starts to fall apart.

First, the president tried to make a point about Georgia’s abortion law, but then got a bit confused when he tried to make his next point – that a state right to abortion is the same as a states’ right against Jim Crow laws.

And Trump says he’s in favor of protecting young women when it suits his cause to deport all immigrants in the United States, but he completely undermines the prepared talking points they tried to get him to make by being the man who is legalizing young girls to carry the unborn children of their fathers, uncles, and other rapists. He doesn’t care about girls or women at all.

It’s not that the points they gave him were bad — in fact, they were all pretty good — but they gave him too many points. Sometimes he only had a minute, and they tried to cram a dump truck’s worth of ideas into every answer.

Trying to remember all five points in just one minute under the bright lights of a TV studio can be a challenge for young people.

Biden’s best moment of the night was when he was just being quintessential Joe Biden.

“You have the morals of a stray cat.”

“My son wasn’t a loser. My son wasn’t stupid. You’re the stupid one! You’re the loser!”

Biden gave a lengthy response on foreign policy, his speciality, but he was calm and knew what to say.

“It may be a big ocean, but will it avoid a war in Europe, a major war in Europe? What if, in fact, Putin continues to be in NATO? We have an Article 5 agreement. An attack on one is an attack on all. If he wants to start a nuclear war, which he always says, go ahead. Let Putin go in Ukraine, take control, then move on to Poland or somewhere else. Let’s see what happens.”

Unfortunately, when he gave his closing remarks at the end of the debate, he was right where he started, staring into the camera cramming together the campaign’s talking points into two minutes, resulting in a muddled outcome.

President Biden is 81 years old. He’s been in politics longer than many of his constituents have been alive. If he didn’t know what to say in debates and interviews, he would never have been in politics, let alone become president. Without his knowledge, he wouldn’t be in the position he is in now.

Note to his campaign: don’t overwhelm him with statistics or five points or subpoints for every answer. Just help him out when he’s going to talk at length about something in preparation for a debate or interview. remove Pick out the key points from his answer, don’t make him remember how to concisely combine multiple points.

There is no indication that Trump intends to step down and make someone else the Democratic nominee, so his campaign must figure out the best way to get him to make his intentions more clear.

There’s no media training, briefing book, or talking points to help him do it — the answer is directly to you.

Let’s keep Biden Biden.

Eric Schmelzer is a Los Angeles-based political consultant who served as press secretary to Rep. Jerry Nadler and former Governor Howard Dean.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.