The last time I watched a presidential debate was in 1956 when surrogates represented Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson who was challenging incumbent Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. Since then, I have relied on press/media reports and analysis of what was said or how the candidates acted.
But I changed my strategy when President Joe Biden “debated” former President Donald Trump this year. Why? Well, for the same reason I would watch a car race and wait for the inevitable crash.
Even though it didn’t take long for the first crash of the night, I watched until the end hoping for some substance, but I was denied any insight into what either of these guys was going to do about the multitude of problems that exist in our country and around the world today.
Even though the CNN moderators had previously been very critical of former President Trump, they were both even-handed throughout the 90-minute talk fest. When the two contenders strayed from the initial question, they tried, unsuccessfully in almost every case, to get them back on track.
This is not unique in political debates. Each candidate comes in with an agenda and talking points that they think will convince voters to vote for them and they won’t let debate moderators get in the way of selling their ideas. In this case, if either of them had an agenda, it appears it was only to talk for 90 minutes.
What voters are most curious about is exactly what the candidate’s positions are on matters of importance. For example, simply saying you’re going to fix the economy, massive illegal migration, the fentanyl crisis, or anything else doesn’t provide any insight on how it can be fixed. In government, things don’t “get fixed” quickly and often the fix turns out to only worsen the original problem; one example is the homeless problems many cities face, and another was the COVID-19 crisis.
As the night wore on, each man made up unsubstantiated claims, used faulty facts and figures to present his case, and otherwise tried to embellish his own record to impress voters. After the debate though, only former President Trump was “fact checked” in many media outlets while President Bidens’ many slip-ups went unreported.
In their defense though, it was hard for fact checkers and viewers to keep up with the current president, since he seemed unfocused, confused, and sometimes “froze up” mid-sentence when trying to respond to a question. His halting speech, lack of focus, rapid change of the subject during responses, and obvious frailty was distracting and sad to watch. Why his handlers agreed to subject him to this type of public exposure is a head-scratcher.
After the debate, it got worse; now we find out that President Biden is only available six hours a day! One of the most important functions of the president of the United States is the role of commander in chief of the armed forces. The person in this position, like firefighters and ambulance crews, must be able to make life changing decisions 24-hours a day, 365 days a year throughout his/her tenure.
But unlike emergency service personnel, the president’s decisions can have worldwide impact and only the president can launch military forces against our enemies.
As I watched our current president that night, I wasn’t sure if he was up to the task. This should trouble all Americans because it isn’t a partisan issue, it’s a matter of public safety and protecting all citizens from harm. And as far as setting public policy, who’s calling the shots if the person who’s supposed to be doing it can’t articulate their position clearly?
So, while I rarely watch political debates, this one cleared up one serious question. It had been long rumored in press and electronic media that President Biden has cognitive issues; his handlers and friendly media have denied it vigorously over the last several months, but the debate left no doubt.
President Joe Biden has problems with language, memory, and thinking, and that fact places the United States in a dangerous position. The leader of the free world must be able to think clearly all the time and react promptly during serious situations, and he doesn’t appear to be up to the task.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a response for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 11-21, 2024.