Well it's finally here: WrestleMania I: The Quest To Save America's Soul. Tuesday night, Joe Biden and Chancellor Palpatine will step into the ring, I mean, onto the debate stage and have it out, as it were. Make no mistake about it, the current occupant of the Oval Office knows he's trailing, and trailing badly, and he will do virtually anything to breath some life into that malignancy he calls a campaign; a campaign that to this day still hasn't landed a glove on Biden.
Screw the kitchen sink, Trump will throw the entire kitchen at Biden hoping to rattle him enough so that he'll make some critical mistakes that will change the course of this race. Biden must not let that happen. Remember, Trump has to win this debate; Biden only has to not lose it.
So how does Biden accomplish this? I believe it comes down to three things.
One: Biden must keep his composure. Trump will do his damnedest to provoke Biden by going after his son, Hunter and accusing both of being corrupt. Knowing how Biden feels about his family this will be a matter of honor for him. But no matter how tempting it might be, Biden cannot return Trump's salvos. Getting his opponents to crawl into the mud pit with him was how Trump beat out his Republican rivals to capture the nomination and later defeat Hillary. Dragging people down to his level is his one specialty. It allows him to even the playing field and say that he's no better or worse than his opponents.
Don't misunderstand me. Biden doesn't have to be a door mat. Had John Kerry taken the swift boat attack adds seriously in '04, he might've beaten Bush. But the best way to disarm Trump is not by going tit for tat, but by staying above the fray. Show the audience how an adult deals with an adolescent. The reason Biden's lead over Trump has been this resilient is because a majority of people believe he's the better man. Ceding that advantage now with five weeks to go before the election would be a colossal blunder.
Two: Biden must not get caught up in the weeds. One of the strengths that Biden has going for him is his vast experience from being vice president and a U.S. senator. It's also, oddly enough, his greatest liability, because it provides him with a plethora of topics to choose from that, though informative, have no business in a 90 minute debate. All throughout the Democratic primary debates, Biden constantly got distracted by this or that thing, most of it having to do with his prior record. And he had a terrible knack for going over the allotted time while answering a question or responding to an attack. We all remember the "My time is up" remark. That cannot happen again, not against someone like Trump who will pounce on it.
Biden needs to focus. When he's asked a question, he needs to answer it succinctly and definitively. Trump will want to distract and change the subject. To employ a baseball metaphor, he will try to get Biden to chase balls that are out of the strike zone. To combat that, Biden must address every question by pointing out what Trump did wrong and what he would do right if he were president. That's it. No going off on tangents, no chasing rabbits down rabbit holes. Keep it simple, stupid, like we say in the program. And while we're at it, let me reiterate what I wrote earlier in the month: under no circumstances should Biden attempt to fact check Trump during the debate. If Chris Wallace isn't up to the challenge, Biden sure as shit ain't.
Three: Biden must make the debate a referendum on Trump. In theory, this should be a slam dunk. No sitting president in American history has so thoroughly been in over his head. But therein lies the problem. Because he's done so much damage, it's hard to choose which of his top hits to play. The recent revelations in The New York Times about him not paying taxes is, I'm sorry to say, an oldie but not a goodie. We've been here before. It wasn't a game changer in 2016 and it won't be this year. For the most part, Trump's corruption is already baked into the equation so to speak. His supporters will rationalize it away, his haters will get all worked up over it and the rest of the country probably won't give a shit about it.
The thing Biden has to do is narrow the field down to two main topics: the Coronavirus and healthcare. Period! Every chance Biden gets he should drive home to the audience that 200,000 people have died, 120,000 small businesses have gone under and more than 15 million people remain out of work, all because of this president's incompetence. Use his own words against him. When Trump repeats the lie that he was trying not to panic people, throw it back in his face by saying that he had no such concern about panicking people in 2018 over caravans of migrants, yet when a real threat emerged he said nothing.
Next Biden needs to remind every one that just ten days after the election, Trump's justice department will be presenting oral arguments before the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and that if that happens, tens of millions of people will lose their healthcare coverage and millions more will be denied coverage because of pre-exiting conditions. When Trump interrupts by saying he signed an executive order covering pre-exiting conditions, Biden needs to make clear that an executive order is NOT a substitute for actual legislation, and that if he's elected, he'll improve the ACA by adding a public option to make it even more affordable for working-class families, and if it's overturned, he'll work with leaders from both parties to come up with something even better.
Then Biden needs to remind everyone tuning in that it was the Democratic Party which gave America healthcare reform and that it's the Republican Party which wants to take it away. Don't relent for one minute. Keep beating that horse until the ASPCA shows up and starts issuing citations. Make clear what's at stake in this election. A pandemic which devastated the country and the potential loss of healthcare for millions of people. One man has a plan for how to deal with those things, the other has a bucket full of excuses and a fountain pen. It's a distinction that most voters will be able to make, assuming Biden allows them to make it.
Now I know what you're thinking. What about Social Security, which Trump will bankrupt in less than three years if he gets reelected? While I think it's an important issue, it's more of a campaign ad for Floridians, especially senior Floridians, whom I suspect will be rightly concerned about losing their primary source of income. And you can tell Trump is also worried; that's why he's sending out $200 vouchers to 33 million Medicare recipients in an obvious and desperate attempt to bribe them. It won't work. Still, if the topic does come up, Biden shouldn't shy away from it. And regarding the Supreme Court vacancy, mention it, yes, but only insofar as it impacts the fate of the ACA. Remember, Biden needs to appeal to the roughly 7 to 8 percent of undecided voters who will likely determine the outcome of the 2020 election. The primaries are over; let Schumer handle the Senate confirmation hearings.
My point is 90 minutes isn't a lot of time, especially when you're dealing with a sociopath like Trump who will be all over the map. To be effective, Biden doesn't have to peel off every layer of shit Trump has thrown at the black board during his presidency; that would take too long. He just needs to make the most of the time allotted to him.
Like I mentioned above, Biden doesn't have to hit the ball out of the park; he does, however, have to make sure Trump doesn't bean him on the head with it.
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