As an American interested in keeping his sanity, I avoided watching the first debate in order to spare myself the unfiltered torrent of lies from the more tangerinesque candidate on the stage. Why suffer being gaslit for a good portion of 90 minutes when driving thumbtacks under my finger nails is still an option? Unfortunately, an absolute poopsquall followed the debate and I was ultimately convinced that reviewing the transcripts of this alleged cataclysm was insufficient to comment intelligently on Biden and Trump’s relative performances.
Now that I’ve watched the debate, I am livid. Not at Biden, not at the DNC, not at Biden’s handlers, not even at Trump (at least not more than usual). Rather, I’m absolutely disgusted with the media and all those joining the scrum calling for Biden to drop out. I had read the panicked commentary, insulting headlines and condescending remarks about Biden and as a result expected to see some sort of epic collapse with him bumbling, burbling and drooling for 90 seconds. Instead I saw the slow, rough start of someone who was obviously feeling a bit under the weather, but picked up steam as the debate went on. The event which set so many people’s hair on fire wasn’t the result of cognitive impairment or some sort of episode, it was just awkwardness around wanting to finish a point as he was running up against the time limit. He started then stopped, before ultimately deciding not to continue. Later during the debate, he would just talk through the limit which was far less awkward.
Overall, my impression was that Biden actually won the debate, although Trump won the first 25% due to Biden’s initial issues. I will note that I may have had a different experience than most of the readers here. I viewed the debate with another person who had originally seen it during the live broadcast. They indicated that Biden’s volume seemed higher in the version we watched and that as a result he was much easier to understand and sounded better.
Trump was a mess. His entire debate consisted of lies, with fantastical lies blood libeling immigrants being his favorites. He was incapable of answering the questions asked, and even his talking points were unfocused and meandering. A significant number of the words he spoke weren’t the actual words, but approximations.
So yeah, I’m a bit salty about having subjected myself to Trump’s brain rotting audible excrement because the media needs to sell stories and half of everyone to the left of Mitch McConnel wants to engage in a freak out.