For decades Matt Dillahunty has been making his living by publicly debating theists and deists of all stripes (and even occasional atheists). Many of them use the same sorts of tactics that tfg did in the first debate. Sometimes Matt gets the worst of it- he has learned firsthand what doesn’t work. Here are some of his points (in my words):
What went right: Biden had an amazing grasp of the facts. He spent 90 minutes delivering factual answers and was almost always correct. This was an amazing performance for someone of any age.
Joe doesn’t have dementia. My mother had dementia. Dementia takes away memory and would make it impossible to do this. She was capable of coming up with alternative facts like tfg did.
What went wrong: A debate is a performance designed to influence the audience. Facts can be important, but so is delivery, confidence, and warmth. Biden failed on all of these. His cold didn’t help. Maybe he was overprepped and straining to focus on facts instead of being relaxed. He did stupid stuff like get into an argument about his prowess at golf, which is obviously unrelated to being president.
The rules favored tfg: The lack of fact checking meant that Biden’s facts and tfg’s lies were given the same weight. An analysis of the transcript proves this, but it is too late. Ironically, the microphone cutoff also helped tfg- it prevented him from interrupting and looking like the jerk he normally is.
Reagan was a master of this type of debate. He ignored facts and focused on presenting his sunny image. Mondale destroyed him on the facts but lost the debates. Nixon was much better on the facts than Kennedy (polls show the voters who listened to their debate on the radio thought he won) but looked sweaty and stressed. On the other hand, Bill Clinton had a complete mastery of the facts but also was a genius at performing- Papa Bush had no chance.
Can he do better: He and his team need to understand the tactics being deployed against them and come up with an effective counter. Matt has faced these tactics himself and has ideas of how to combat them. Joe isn’t debating a geek like Paul Ryan who will get down in the weeds and argue about arcane policy issues. This is like facing a young earth creationist who will lie, distort, and ignore reality.
Biden has a vision for the country and he needs to focus on that. Facts are fine but they aren’t the selling point. tfg has no vision other than destroying anyone who opposes him. Most people want to live in a country that is governed fairly and competently. The Democrats are on the popular (and right) side of almost every major issue.
tfg has been successful at only one thing in his life- being a reality show performer. He is very good at it. He is also a bully who knows how to get under his victim’s skin. He threw Hillary off in their first debate with his stalking, although that backfired somewhat since everyone could see what he was doing.
He can be dealt with in a debate- Joe did just fine in 2020. But Joe can’t be prepped by policy geeks. A good starting place would be to have Jill listen in.
I recommend listening to Matt’s take if you are stressed out. There is no atheism talk, if that turns you off.