Fumbled

A dispatch from the deck of the Titanic

Sometimes I indulge a daydream about how things might have been. It goes like this:

Summer 2015. Obama’s two terms, the late halcyon year of what turned out to be a faux pax Americana, are coming to an end. He is leaving America in pretty good shape - certainly not the colossal economic disaster and lie-fueled war wreckage W and the GOP left in their wake. O and the Dems can take credit for creating a version of national health care, albeit extremely limited.

For a New York minute early that year, there seemed to be a question about who the party would nominate. But behind the scenes, the deck was stacked, party leaders were behind Hillary. “First Woman President” had a nice ring to it. Besides in the Democratic Party donor/strategist industrial complex, it was her turn.

As someone who had covered Hillary over the years, I remember the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when I realized she was the anointed successor. All that baggage, disinterring the sleaze, the blue dress, philandering Bill, the oleaginous Arkansas accents, small-time corruption, her benefiting from nepotism, her defensive crouch with the media. Hillary was and is a serious, wonky, process-oriented lawyer, innately suited to the Senate, where she served the people of New York before ditching the chamber to run for president in ‘08. God, she would have made a great Supreme Court Justice.

In the alternate universe in my mind, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, entering her ninth decade having battled cancer for decades, decided in 2014 to step down. Obama appointed Hillary to take her seat. With Justice Clinton’s ambitions tucked away with a lifetime sinecure, a more viable Democrat - anyone but Hillary - beat Trump in 2016. In that world, Roe is the law of the land and MAGA just a blip in our collective memory.

But this is not how things turned out. 

For Trump last night, it was like taking candy from a baby. Biden lost his train of thought over and over. Trump lied and lied, while Biden fumbled over his talking points, drifted. And he looked cadaverous. Later it was said he “had a cold.” Wouldn’t that be the first thing you’d say if that was why you couldn’t talk above a whisper?

It’s true the bar is lower for Trump. All Trump has to do is sound and look slightly more reasonable than we expect him to. He seems to have figured that out. Trump looked less Adderall-ed than usual. Perhaps his six weeks of forced captivity with eyes closed in Judge Merchan’s courtroom were the emotional and psychological equivalent of a silent meditation retreat on Mt. Athos.

I heard him talking to tech tycoon David Sacks on the All In podcast last week, and I had a bad feeling about what was ahead. I was surprised at how logical and prepared he sounded. No rants, no retributions, lots of stats. No electrocuted sharks. I chalked it up to the fact that he was with a bunch of friendly sycophant science and tech moneybags he respects. He certainly doesn’t talk that way at his rallies.

He doesn’t need to call on the Proud Boys anymore. They are already mustered.

Instead the Democrats have presented America with probably the only elected Democrat who can’t win a debate against Donald Trump. Biden let Trump spew slogan lies about what “a disaster” this country is, about how migrant hordes are stealing Social Security, and how Democrats want to “rip babies from the womb and kill them.

Cue the image of ghoul Stephen Miller and werewolf Steven Bannon chortling in the shadows.

Some viewers were furious that CNN didn’t fact check the Trump lies. But it’s not exclusively the job of debate moderators to do that, it’s also the responsibility of the well-prepared quick-witted opponent.

Don’t blame the messenger, people.

Biden couldn’t choke out a defense of his good record. He couldn’t remind people that the real “disaster” is the one Trump created for American women, pandering to the fetal fanatic wing of his party and reducing us to second class citizens denied modern health care. He couldn’t defend himself against the outrageous claim that he tried to bribe Ukraine when Trump’s “perfect phone call” to Zelensky looking for dirt is here in an actual White House transcript.

Instead, in the appalling first ten minutes, Biden mumbled in utter confusion, “We beat ... Medicare” when apparently he meant Big Pharma. The President couldn’t even coherently support his own insulin price cap program in a dithering closing statement.

None of this is meant to imply that I don’t think Biden is a terrific president, who was absolutely the right man for the job after the wreckage and tragedy of Trump One. But the campaign, the candidate, and his high-profile surrogates need to have serious conversations about how to move forward from here, before it's too late.