The larger lesson of Bidens debate debacle: Two opposing visions of Americas future
Joe Biden’s stammering, scatterbrained, unpresidential performance in Thursday’s debate with Donald Trump actually helped him in one way: Everyone paid attention to how bad Biden looked and sounded — not what he was saying.Between the memory lapses, the president did have a message, even a vision.But the America he wants to see looks nothing like the one voters want.This election’s biggest issues are inflation, immigration and insecurity in foreign affairs — three things Biden can’t campaign on, because he’s responsible for the mess Americans are mad about in all those areas.So instead, he turned to the oldest tactic in the Democratic playbook: blaming the rich.Biden’s message was recycled from the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, perhaps the last year Joe felt like he was in full command of his faculties.Unable to run on his own dismal record, Biden on Thursday tried to channel the class-war spirit of Bernie Sanders, without a glimmer of the senator’s curmudgeonly appeal.Biden went hard after Trump’s tax cuts — and Trump couldn’t have been more pleased. The ex-prez was happy to boast about the tax relief he delivered and the prosperity it ushered in.Trump upped the ante on Biden, too, reminding viewers he slashed regulation as well.This was a classic clash between a confident, free-market Republican outlook and a Democrat’s dream of winning elections by capitalizing on resentment of the rich. Trump may not be Ronald Reagan, but he’s learned the lessons of the Gipper’s success.He’s also learned how to appeal to conservatives and centrists at the same time, leaving Biden to pitch his rhetoric to the envious left.On abortion, Trump branded Democrats as the extremists and put himself on the side of democracy — legal limits on abortion would be for voters to decide, state by state.Biden insisted on imposing a one-size-fits-all policy on the whole country — and while he claimed that wouldn’t include late-term and partial-birth...