To appreciate how badly Biden performed, you had to be watching MSNBC, not Fox News. I have a slew of notable quotes.
Joy Reid: My phone has been ringing all night. The campaign is in panic.
Joy Reid: After tonight, Biden may believe he can do this but the party doesn’t.
Joy Reid: Biden’s avatar looks broken.
Chris Hayes: The roll of a candidate is to communicate. Biden is a very poor communicator.
Nicole Wallace: The smartest people on the Biden campaign thought this was a good idea.
Biden Aide: This is not the ideal start.
Jen Psaki: Trump was confident and coherent.
Jen Psaki: What do we do now?
Jen Psaki: We need to push out the best moments. There were a couple.
Jen Psaki: The campaign is going to have to figure out how to dig out of this hole.
Jen Psaki: We should not sugar coat this.
Breakaway lead comment: There is a very uniform negative reaction. Biden comes across as a feeble person.
All of the comments are from notes. They may not be precise but they should be close. I am not sure who that lead comment was from.
Fox News vs MSNBC
I watched the debate with friends on Fox News but then suggested we turn to MSNBC for the analysis. I wanted to see how anyone could possibly sugar coat this.
Not even MSNBC could although Rachael Maddow tried hard.
Trump Fell Short
Trump was neither as good as he could have been or as bad as one might have known he could be.
Trump ducked many questions and surprisingly the moderators let him get away with it.
Trump blew closing remarks. He failed to focus on inflation.
After watching MSNBC for perhaps a half hour we did turn back to Fox. Everyone there was glowing over how well Trump did.
Trump did start out strong but over the course of 90 minutes morphed into more of his Trumpian bravado without answering any questions.
But that was good enough. Biden looked like an zombie on drugs.
This image says it all.
Debate in a Nutshell
Deer in Headlights
Biden Assisted Off Stage
This was likely taped on a cell phone. One reason CNN did not want the media present was to hide moments like this.
Nomination Odds
Replacing Biden
Brutal
Panic Sets In
Joy Reid was amazingly harsh on Biden. So were a couple other panelists. Rachel tried her best as did a couple others but even she had many negative comments.
The campaign must now face four questions.
Four Questions
- How do we get Biden out of here?
- When do we get Biden out of here?
- What the heck do we do with Kamala Harris?
- If not Biden, whom?
Biden cannot last four more years. Heck he may not last four more months.
“You Cannot Sugar Coat This”
This was truly a pathetic performance.