To Debate or Not Debate?

Recently the Commission on Presidential Debates scheduled
three debates for the presumptive Democrat nominee, Joe
Biden and the incumbent President Donald Trump. But some
observers of our political scene think that perhaps the debates
should not be held at all. Elizabeth Drew, a liberal journalist
who was a panelist during one of the 1976 debates, declared
"The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential
leadership," because points get awarded for "snappy comebacks
and one-liners."

There is some truth to her argument, but in this uniquely weird
and unsettling year it is all the more important that the debates
are held, for the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the postponement
and/or cancellations of many political rallies, making for less
opportunities to see the candidates in the flesh. The conventions
will be almost totally online. Biden hasn't done any Sunday
shows since the pandemic arrived on our shores. Then, too,
one must note that Biden has been kept out of the public eye
as much as possible by his campaign team because of his increased
(and increasing) propensity for uttering more gaffes; a few years
ago on this blog your favorite Peasant called Biden "The Gaffemaster
General of the United States". With his seemingly diminished
mental facilities which has been increasingly obvious in recent
months Team Biden has been anxious to prevent further instances
of what has become the country's worst-kept secret.

The former Vice President, if he were to win the presidential election
in November, would take office at age 78 ---  making him the oldest
president American history. Biden has already confused Iowa with
Ohio on a campaign stop there a few months earlier, has confused
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with the late former PM
Margaret Thatcher, and bragged about putting together the Paris
climate accord with Chinese head of state Deng Xiaoping ---
perhaps Biden enlisted the aid of a medium to do this, as Deng
has been dead since 1997. And these are but a few examples of
his increasing cognitive lapses.

The debates can certainly be overhauled so as to improve the quality
of the candidates' responses to questions and retorts to verbal jabs.
Better this than cancel the debates altogether, which will leave much
of the public out of the loop for getting a feel for the candidates and
their stands on the pressing issues of the day, thus helping them to
make up their minds as to whom to vote for. And since Biden likes
to rip on President Trump, calling him a racist, a liar, and inept as
our president from the safety of his bunker, as it were, he should
have the courage to face his target up close and personal and repeat
his slurs.

Let the candidates compete; keep and hold the debates!


MEM