The presidential debate that played out on TV screens on Thursday night was a sad spectacle for America, and for the world. The shining city on a hill of freedom and democracy is looking tattered and rundown. Both presidential candidates are older than any previous holder of the office. Joe Biden appeared frail and sometimes confused, losing his train of thought mid-answer. Donald Trump lied repeatedly and evinced the complete absence of a moral compass. For the Democratic party, and all those who fear Trump represents an existential threat to the American republic, Biden’s halting performance is cause for despair.
Each candidate is the inverse of his rival in two important senses. Though Biden struggled to communicate, the substance of some of his answers indicated his mind is still sharp. That suggests he is, for the time being, still fit to govern. The problem is that in the performative world of US politics, conducted via media clips that can be mercilessly edited, he does not appear fit to campaign.
Trump remains at least vigorous enough to campaign — even if his responses, too, were often rambling or plain wrong. Yet his wild distortions of facts and dangerous desire for vengeance make him clearly unfit to govern. The focus on Biden risks distracting from just how much this encounter also revealed about the convicted felon who is his opponent. This is a man who claimed that Biden was a stooge of Communist China and had “encouraged” Russia to invade Ukraine, and who declined to state unequivocally that he would accept the results of November’s election. In a flawed format, moderators often failed to call out his falsehoods.