It is always worth remembering. During one of (their last?) debates in 2020, trump made a comment that Biden took as an attack on Beau (it was actually Hunter). Biden went fucking ballistic and trump visibly cowered. That basically destroyed the strong man routine instantly and shut everyone up about “Biden is weak”. Another moment like that would have almost guaranteed a win.
But also? Biden is a traditional politician who believes that there should be a debate so that people can make informed decisions. So the usual Democrat bullshit of trying to play by the rules.
But ALSO: If Biden had refused then the news cycle would be nothing but “Biden is a coward” and “Biden is weak”.
There was no winning. But if there had been fact checking and the rules were even kind of adhered to and Biden hadn’t drank a bottle of Nyquil or whatever the fuck happened there? It would have been good. Hell, even just one of those would have probably led to a decisive win.
I mean, this is pretty standard for Biden. He has had that stutter and aphasia for decades.
And yes, if your goal is a Reaction video or to call him weak and push an accelerationist agenda, that is horrible.
Anyone else? “Okay, he said th-th-thousands when he meant millions. It happens and it shouldn’t but people should also not be taking hard statistics from political speeches. Wait, they made fourteen fucking million jobs??!?”
There is no argument that Biden did not accomplish what he needed to on Wednesday. He and the Democratic Party fucked up. But trump also did not accomplish what he needed to do and I think we mostly came out net neutral. Is net neutral at all acceptable at this point? No. But Biden has shown, time and time again, that he is really good at winning people over over time.