By Stephen Macaulay
“There’s no such thing as a second first impression.”
That’s something that many Democratic operatives, the Biden Boosters, seem not to realize.
Sure, President Biden has accomplished some very good things in his tenure — the Inflation Reduction Act alone trumps all of what Donald J. Trump accomplished vis-à-vis infrastructure, and the IRA is no small thing as it has tremendous benefits for Americans at all levels of the economic stratum.
And, yes, there is no question that Trump has openly stated that he plans to do all manner of things should he get a second term that are more along the lines of assuaging his own bruised ego than Making America Great Again. (To say nothing of his conflict with electricity and/or sharks.)
But on the evening of June 27 millions of people tuned in to the presidential debate, millions of whom were happily anxious to see Joe Biden school Donald Trump in a perfunctory manner.
And what they saw within the first few minutes was an old man who seemed as though he wasn’t sure why he was where he was at.
That impression is something that will not be overcome.
On November 5 there will undoubtedly be a number of people who had voted for Biden or who had been previously inclined to, who will just stay home. How can they, in good conscience, vote for a man who was clearly out of his depth?
There is no question that Trump spewed lie after lie after lie.
But during his time on the stage, he proffered these lies in a forceful way. He sounded confident. He appeared in control.
And while he could have really taken it to Biden for Biden’s evident confusion, he didn’t.
That alone, perhaps, will make some people who were on the fence to go to his side.
When the polls that the Biden Boosters cite tend to have it as a “close race, within the margin of error” — and not acknowledging that they need the margin on their side —can they really doubt that they’ve lost a number of people?
What’s more, there is the issue of other people on the ballot in November: 34 Senate seats are open and the Democrats have a chance to take back the House — assuming that people come out to vote.
As of April 2024, according to the Pew Research Center, 49% of registered voters are Democrats or lean that way while the number is 48% for the Republicans.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on July 2 has it that 32% of Democrats think Biden should end his reelection bid.
The math isn’t hard to figure when you consider the delta of registered voters.
Donna Brazile told Politico Playbook, “Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination. To undermine the voters in this country at this hour would be the worst thing the Democratic Party could ever do.”
Presumably this is because the people who voted for him in the primaries (and how many alternatives did they have — besides, of course, Dean Phillips and Jason Palmer on ballots in some states?) would feel disenfranchised were Biden to not be the nominee.
But how many of those people, who watched the debate and who have read the articles that indicate that perhaps the man isn’t running on all cylinders, might want to reconsider their choice?
The “worst thing”? On a scale of losing the presidency, House and Senate?
First we were told Biden had a bad performance because he had a cold. Which miraculously seemed to have disappeared the next day. (Yes, colds go away, but have you ever gone from, say, feeling like hell one day and then on top of the world the next?)
Now we’re told it was because he was tired from travel.
Politico:
“Biden went to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in early June, then to Italy for the G7 meeting on June 12. The president followed that up with a Los Angeles fundraiser on June 15. He returned to Washington on June 16, or 11 days before the debate. He and his team holed up at Camp David for prep for nearly a week prior to the event with Trump in Atlanta.”
Eleven days and he was still tired?
Isn’t that concerning in itself?
More than 50 million people watched the debate.
More than watch any individual speeches or appearances of either of the men.
Trump looked strong. Biden didn’t.
And no amount of staged events or excuses can make that impression go away.