The Debate was a Fucking Disaster (for us Dems)

But we lost a battle, not the war

For all the Democratic operatives freaking out that this is the end, Trump now has it won, Biden needs to be replaced - you’re in the wrong business. There are going to be setbacks, giant awful setbacks, in every campaign. Shake it off and get back to work.

I think this had an outsized emotional impact because all of us, Democrat and Republican, expected Biden to win the debate and the only question we all had - was by how much. And a lot of us had the reasonable hope that Trump would crash & burn.

So when Trump came to dominate the debate, that was a gigantic gut punch.

Complaining about the moderators is bullshit. Yes competent moderators like Kyle Clark would have called out Trump’s torrent of lies. But Biden went in to this knowing that they would not be calling out the lies. He should have been prepared for this.

Biden can handle crazy nonsensical Trump. Biden now needs to learn how to handle smooth controlled lie spewing Trump. And that’s harder. But this is for the most important political job in the world, so yes, it’s a very difficult campaigning challenge Biden needs to face & surmount.

I’ll leave you with this. Romney mopped the floor with Obama in their first debate. Obama won the election.