
<p>In advance of the presidential debate, most analysts – including me – expected President Biden to dispel some of the concerns over his physical and mental condition with a vibrant debate performance. We believed he would rise to the occasion as he did with the State of the Union Speech in January. A good performance would not entirely dismiss concerns about Biden’s ability to take on the responsibilities of the presidency for four more years, but would at least give Biden’s allies a positive talking point.</p>



<p>That is not what happened.</p>



<p>As I wrote in my pre-debate commentary, both Biden and President Trump had Achilles Heels. For Biden, it was the age and mental acuity issues. For Trump, it was his tendency to go overboard with bs and pugnacity. Trump avoided exposing his Achilles Heel &#8212; mostly. Biden’s Achilles Heel was his downfall as it was the mythological Achilles.</p>



<p>It is almost impossible to describe in words just how badly Biden performed. ; Rather than assuage concern about his age and abilities – or more accurately, his debilities – he exposed a Biden that appeared to be in far worse condition than even his harshest critics had ever alleged.</p>



<p>It did not take long. Within minutes of the beginning of the debate, my response was shock. You would have to see it to understand how weak, feeble and out of touch Biden seemed from the very onset of the debate. Some Biden folks said his performance improved as the debate went on. Not much. He struggled in his closing comments.</p>



<p>Biden’s voice was weak. When not speaking, Biden often had one of those vacant wide-eyed stares into space that we see in elderly people in a state of decline. He often lost his train of thought &#8212; and mumbled incoherently from time to time.</p>



<p>Out of curiosity, I switched on closed captions to see how they handled those incoherent moments. They were unable to make sense out of some words. Sometimes it was a gap .. other times closed captions attempted to respond with a mistaken or invented word. By way of example, it printed “MT” for what I believe was supposed to be “amount.” Biden did not stumble, but he did a lot of old man mumbling.</p>



<p>There were a number of notable “senior moments.” In one case, he strangely and inappropriately interjected the murder of a young woman by an illegal immigrant in the middle of a statement on abortion. On another occasion, his train of thought went completely off the rails as he struggled to complete a thought – which he never did.</p>



<p>Despite days of lock-down coaching, Biden demonstrated no control over his own debate strategy. He repeatedly failed to counter Trump&#8217;s statements – even the grossly false ones. Whatever went into his brain during his coaching sessions was gone or addled when he took to the stage.</p>



<p>My highly negative assessment of Biden’s opinion is nothing compared to many of the media personalities and political operatives on the left, who would be expected to spin in favor of Biden. </p>



<p>Democrat strategist David Axelrod said that there was a “state of shock as to how he (Biden) came out at the beginning of this debate.” ; He went on to say that Biden “seemed a little disoriented” and called him “incoherent” at times.</p>



<p>Biden’s own former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield called it a “disappointing debate performance by the President,” adding “there isn’t any other way to slice it.”</p>



<p>Former White House press secretary and now an MSNBC anchor Jennifer Psaki said that the Biden campaign now has a “deep hole.” ; The network’s Donny Deutsch said the problem was not unfixable and suggested that Biden had to step down. ; That was echoed by former Senate college Claire Maccaskill.</p>



<p>Former Obama White House adviser Van Jones said he loves Biden – worked with him – but said watching the debate was “painful” and “he (Biden) did not do well at all.” ; Jones said that Biden needed to restore voters’ confidence in him “and he did not do that.”</p>



<p>Across the left-wing media, there was acceptance that the debate was an unmitigated disaster for Biden. Virtually every news commentator spoke of receiving numerous calls from Democrat operatives, officeholders and donors who were in a high state of panic. That naturally led to a more talk about replacing Biden on the ticket. </p>



<p>In the history of presidential debates, I have never seen such a negative assessment of a presidential candidate from the home team. But many said they have never seen a worse performance in a presidential debate – surpassing the Richard Nixon debacle in 1960. As one Biden panelist said, “We cannot spin enough to overcome what the people saw.”</p>



<p>Democrat operative Ben Rhodes said that there is no way to tell people that they did not see what they saw. ; Axios’ Alex Thompson amazingly said that the Biden seen on the stage was the Biden they see every day. He noted that Biden sleeps late in the morning and ends his workday by early evening. ; He meets with the press less than any President in modern history. ; Thompson said the State of the Unions Speech was the outlier – not the debate.</p>



<p><em>New York Times</em> columnist and good friend of Biden, Tom Friedman, wrote, “I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime.” ; Describing the President as “a good man and a good president” Friedman concluded that Biden “has no business running for re-election.”</p>



<p>Even attempts to spin away the problem – such as the unscheduled post-debate appearances on the networks by Vice President Harris – could not undo the crushing criticism of Biden’s performance. ;</p>



<p>Just minutes into the debate, when the disaster was already unfolding, the White House issued a statement that Biden had a cold. ; Most saw that for what it was – a pre-planned emergency button if things started to go bad. ; Miraculously, Biden’s cold went away when he spoke more forcefully at a debate watchers party immediately following the disaster – with wife Jill leading the effusive but dubious praise.</p>



<p>In an unusual expression of crudeness, the banner at the bottom of the screen on CNN quoted an unnamed Democrat source with this simple summary. ; “We’re F&#8212;ed.”  ;And no one on the media panels disagreed with that assessment. ;</p>



<p>Team Biden now has two problems – to convince American voters that the debate performance was an anomaly and that his obvious condition will not get worse over time. That seems an impossible task, after what millions of Americans say with their own eyes – and have been seeing for some time.</p>



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>



<p>(President Trump’s performance will be the subject of a subsequent commentary).</p>

Biden crashes and burns in debate … beyond worst expectations
