Editorial: Was presidential debate the worst ever?
Share this post:
During the 2024 primary season, neither presidential candidate participated in a debate.
That changed Thursday when President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, took the podiums in an audience-free Atlanta event on CNN.
For many, it was deemed a disaster.
A lackluster, doddering performance from Biden played into every insult from the opposition and every joke from a late-night comedian. He looked old. He looked rattled. Even when he rallied to angrily fight back, it was less righteous indignation and more old man shouting at kids to get off his lawn.
Debates don’t have scoreboards and it is common for both sides to walk out claiming a win. That did not happen Thursday as even Vice President Kamala Harris conceded a poor performance from Biden when she made an unexpected last minute appearance on MSNBC.
But while Biden lost, Trump didn’t do much to win over undecided voters. He fulfilled every expectation from his detractors. He has a long history of denying facts, including his own words even when he said them on video in front of large crowds. He did so again, unchallenged by moderators.
The debate was the first real opportunity to put the candidates back against each other in a side-by-side replay of their 2020 campaign. This time both have a term in office on their resume and have dealt with many of the same issues, including the pandemic, the economy, Supreme Court appointments and personal scandals.
It was something that should have moved undecided Pennsylvanians — or even nudged the decided into another choice. But did it?
This is not the first time tightly divided Pennsylvania voters have been faced with a — to be kind — uneven debate performance.
In 2022, after months off the active campaign trail as he recovered from a stroke, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman took the stage against Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz. If you judged by who spoke easily and with flexibility, Oz won handily. If you went by who met or exceeded expectations, it was much closer.
The real report card came two weeks later. Fetterman won 51.3% to Oz’s 46.3%.
It didn’t take long after the end of the presidential debate for speculation to begin about whether Biden had lost the confidence of the party, much less the voters. Conversations about open or brokered conventions and a possible change in the ticket were rife on Friday.
Those conversations alone might make the Thursday performance the most consequential debate in modern history.
The next debate takes place Sept. 10.