By Ken Zino
Thursday night two disliked candidates for president – Pew says 25% of Americans have unfavorable views of both Biden and Trump – were pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bush about why they should be elected 179 days from this morning. They both failed to make a convincing case. And it just wasn’t over Trump’s numerous lies about the economy, unemployment, his $2 trillion tax cut, his increases in the national debt, inflation, border security, women’s abortion rights, global warming, Putin, Ukraine, cutting Social Security, affordable health care and prescription drugs, the ongoing opioid crisis, accepting election results, among other serious policy issues.
Donald Trump, the Republican convicted felon of 34 counts of fraud, as well as rape and libel (There are more cases pending and he will be sentenced for the 34-count fraud conviction in New York on July 11, facing a maximum sentence of 20 years) was true to form continuing his cavalcade of blatant lies at least 26-fact-check times, according to The New York Times. Trump was evasive, self-delusional and downright mean as the night dragged on. Biden correctly noted that he had the “morals of an alley cat.” Which lead Trump to falsely say that he didn’t have sex with a porn star. As the night progressed Trump continued to obfuscate and not answer pertinent questions by continuing his ad hominem attacks on Biden, appealing to his base and their base emotions of fear and hatred.
The Joe Biden who showed up was not the State of the Union Biden previously covered here. Rather when he spoke it was with a raspy, strained and inaudible tone that yet again raised douts about his age – he would be 86 and the end of his term if re-elected, Trump 82 -- and ability to effectively run the country for four more years.
Younger voters are particularly a problem here for the Democrats. The Israel Hamas war is dragging on and the Democratic Convention this year is in Chicago, the same city when young progressive Democratic voters turned out in 1968 to protest the Vietnam war. A police riot was the chaotic result.
No wonder here that the chattering class –- between commercial breaks -- once again raised the prospect of an alternate candidate. The obvious one is Vice President Kamala Harris, who in a brief appearance on CNBC post-debate wryly noted that only one candidate had the endorsement of his vice president.
In case you missed it, Mike Pence has not endorsed Trump, who sent a January 6th insurrection mob his way with a noose. That’s the mob he is planning on pardoning with his divine right of kings’ attitude toward the US legal system (40 of his 44 top cabinet officers have refused to endorse Trump). Given the current racism running rampant in Trumpland, it’s unlikely that a Black woman with a distinguished law and order record as a prosecutor and now considerable foreign policy experience and eloquence on women’s’ family and reproductive rights to have doctors not politicians make personal health care decisions would have an easy time of it. Look at what happened to “lock her up” Hilary Clinton -- which Trump also denies having said even with multiple examples of video footage. Sigh.
Well, Biden has beaten Trump before. Three of the last recessions have come under Republican rule. The Democrats need to demonstrate starting today why Biden’s policies are path to a hopeful not hate-filled future.