To debate or not to debate? That was the question.
Or, put more succinctly, it’s one quandary that faced both major party presidential nominees-to-be this year, the choice regarding whether to grant his opponent a chance to share the same national stage, and, hypothetically speaking, hash over the issues of the day and the most salient matters on the minds of American voters in 2024 in real time.
Both candidates apparently answered in the affirmative as well, and the back-and-forth over who would have the advantage has dominated the news ever since. For his part, Republican standard bearer Donald Trump has seemed anxious to meet incumbent president senile Joe Biden face-to-face, itching to force the 2020 deemed winner Democrat to answer for his slew of awful policies dragging the United States down at home and abroad.
Thankfully for conservatives, the two men are as different as night and day, as are their philosophies for preparing for this week’s debate – they are as divergent as they themselves. Trump isn’t going through the “normal” preparation routine, but he’s hardly taking the event sitting down. In a post simply titled “Trump on the debate”, Byron York wrote at the Washington Examiner the other day:
“I asked what Trump is doing to prepare. There have been reports that he is holding ‘policy discussions’ with Republican lawmakers but not doing the traditional debate preparation, such as holding mock debates. Trump is just not interested in that sort of thing. He feels it’s not necessary. ‘It’s very hard to prepare,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to know this stuff from years of doing it. And I know all the leaders, and I know what I know. It’s largely based on common sense. Common sense is not to allow people to come into our country by the millions if you have no idea where they’re from. … I don’t know, I think debating is an attitude more than anything else.’
“Finally, it is just a fact that both the president and the former president could be rusty. Neither has debated in four years. Biden has been in the bubble of the White House, and Trump sailed through a Republican nomination process that he dominated so completely that he did not need to take part in any debates.
“’I don’t fear debates,’ Trump said. ‘I did the right thing with the Republicans because I was leading by 75 points. I mean, how do you go and debate guys when you’re leading by 75 points? I was fully prepared, but the polls came out, and I was leading everybody. How do you have Asa Hutchinson, at zero, screaming at you and you’re up by 75 points? Why would you subject yourself to that?’”
You wouldn’t, but Trump took a lot of flak last year for not participating anyway, primarily from an establishment media that missed his presence even more than the voter viewing audience that would’ve been enriched by seeing the former president dueling with Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and company. Wouldn’t it have been fun to see Trump competing with Vivek Ramaswamy and Mike Pence, too?
Of course, Trump isn’t a political debater by “profession”, but the lack of “game experience” didn’t slow him down eight and four years ago. Take it from a man who’s spent his life in the media spotlight, there’s no hesitation when the cameras are on and lots of people are watching. Commentators always say that Trump is an egotistical glory hound, but he “entertains” in the political arena as well. Knowing how to frame a message has always provided Trump an advantage.
One of the things that makes Trump so effective in debates is his innate ability/talent to receive the question, no matter what it is or who delivered it and reply in an effective way that is a style all his own. The first couple seconds is the key to answering any offering in a debate, partially because the brief period contains the gist of your belief/policy, but also because the moderator/audience tends to tune out the murky details afterwards.
Recall the very first question he was asked by Fox News’s Megyn Kelly in August, 2015 – his first political debate -- when the TV host opted to challenge him head-on on Trump’s sordid tabloid reputation with women. Not content to merely stand there and allow the politically correct establishment narrative to persist without a retort, Trump disputed the basis of Kelly’s question and then interrupted her, quipping, “Only Rosy O’Donnell”.
Trump’s response elicited laughter from the viewing audience but also established the lifelong real estate developer/tabloid celebrity/reality TV star as a tough talking non-politician who couldn’t be expected to behave in the same manner as wooden figures like John McCain or Mitt Romney had always done. Or Joe Biden. And it’s been that way ever since.
It's no big secret that politicians love to speak about themselves and their political ideas. It’s what they do. Trump likes talking about himself, too, but he’s much more direct in debates, including interacting with the questioners. To claim that Trump’s is a conversational tone is an understatement. Trump almost treats debate questions like standard media queries and doesn’t always feel obligated to take the entire time allotted to flesh out his replies.
And he’s not afraid to look directly at his competitors on stage and name names. Or to make up nicknames and brand his opponents. Politics isn’t boring when Trump is around. Others simply can’t keep up.
Trump listens intently but doesn’t treat the debate like it’s a zero-sum game of maximizing the amount of time speaking. Equal opportunity won’t be as much of an issue in a one-on-one format this week, but don’t be too surprised if the Republican challenger is content to talk about broad concepts in place of reciting memorized platitudes and statistics that may or may not be accurate.
Senile Joe Biden, like every Democrat, will likely attempt to overwhelm the audience with figures and numbers and then resort to generalities to drive home a point. Something like, “African-Americans have fared better under my policies because MAGA Fascists are racists and want to return the government back to the days of Jim Crow and deny them the vote.”
Americans – the ones who actually pay attention to the details of politics and policy – have become so conditioned to politicians receiving a question, perhaps deflecting or even ignoring it and then launching into a detailed oration of his or her views on a topic that was raised earlier in the program or hadn’t even been brought to light yet.
Yes, every politician seeks to get in x number of points on a subject, particularly if you’re a Democrat and invariably have multiple government-centered ideas to address a perceived problem. Take taxation, for example. Senile Joe Biden and fellow Democrats perpetuate the myth (outright lie?) that taxes for top earners are too low, that the rich therefore game the system and build their next mansion from the excess of capital they’re not paying the poor federal government in withholdings.
Trump is wealthy, too, and he’s one of the best-known famous people in the world (if not the most well-known celebrity of all-time). Yet it’s his ability to speak the people’s language that endears him to the masses. People also love his boundless energy and never-say-quit attitude which sets him apart from the others.
Senile Joe Biden can study the cramming materials prepared for him but he can’t ever learn to compete with Trump in the relatability category. It used to be that Biden relied on his reputation as a “good guy” to cover for pervasive intellectual deficiencies. That’s much harder to do now that he’s been exposed as a nasty, cranky old pervert whose best capacities are expended covering for his son and family – including himself.
Biden can’t counter Trump’s arguments on policy – such as with immigration, the economy, energy exploration, foreign relations and woke culture – so he’ll try to steer the conversation back towards demonizing Trump’s moral character. How many study sessions would Biden require to say for the thousandth time that Trump is a “threat to democracy” and “we’ll never have another free election if he is elected president.” Makes a lot of sense, right?
The Democrat will attempt to move the discussion to governing styles and personality attributes, and probably mention his “bipartisan” legislation a million times as though getting Mitch McConnell to go along with big government spending is an accomplishment. Statistics don’t lie unless you’re Joe Biden and you arrange them in such a way to mislead the voters. Isn’t that called disinformation?
Senile Joe will say he inherited high inflation. A lie. He’ll blame large federal deficits on the Republicans in Congress. He’ll blame Trump for having appointed three justices who sent Roe v. Wade to the trash bin of history. He’ll claim Trump is a scofflaw and deserved to be convicted of crimes. And that none of the prosecutions were politically motivated. Nor were Nancy Pelosi’s two impeachments, right?
In saying so, Trump was correct – he doesn’t need to take part in endless mock debate sessions with a Joe Biden stand-in to know what to do in Atlanta. It is common sense. This debate – and the election – will be won through power of persuasion, not by how many numbers the candidates can memorize. Biden’s argument for another term is being rejected by the voters not because of his age, but because of his awful policies.
Trump must nationalize the election based on the Democrats’ policies. Make them own them. It is common sense.
Democrat policies fail everywhere they’re tried. Biden can’t exactly trumpet the great success stories in blue states across the country. What’s he going to say, that abortion is all but unlimited in the Democrat-controlled jurisdictions?
Elections are always about the future. American voters will determine the winner of this week’s debate, and it will be the candidate who’s best able to present a vision of the years ahead that resonates with voters. For the portion of the electorate that listens to such things, Trump has something for them, starting with making sure the nation’s immigration laws are enforced.
My advice to Donald Trump? Be yourself. You’ve gotten this far by presenting an alternative to the leftist movement in this country. That’s all the studying you’ll need to put Joe Biden in his place.
Joe Biden economy
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Biden cognitive decline
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