Conservatives could accidentally help Biden win his debate with Trump | Margaret Sullivan

If Joe Biden wants to win the November election, he must win this week's televised debate. He must be energetic and competent. He must convincingly argue that Donald Trump represents a danger to the nation and the world. And, perhaps most importantly, he must appear mentally sharp.

That's a lot to pack into less than 90 minutes, especially sharing the stage with someone as unpredictable as Trump, whose dominant personality and brutal tactics can give him an edge.

Fortunately for Biden and everyone who cares about America's future, the president already has some crucial advantages ahead of Thursday night's debate on CNN.

The format suits him well. First, there is no studio audience to create a disturbance or applaud Trump's wild statements; this way, the debate will not turn into one of those fake town halls filled with members of right-wing sects posing as undecided voters. (Is there really an undecided voter in the country? If so, why?)

Second and most importantly, each candidate's microphone will be muted when it is not their turn to speak. This limits Trump's habit of relentless interruption, which dominated the first presidential debate in 2020.

Given these ground rules, it's surprising that Trump agreed to the debate and it's always possible that he'll back down, no doubt citing how the entire world is rigged against his noble greatness.

But even with these reasonable regulations in his favor, Biden faces the challenge of convincing potential voters that he is capable of doing the job for another four years.

To this end, he has received help from an unexpected quarter: the media, both mainstream and right-wing.

In recent months and especially in recent weeks, much of the media has waged a campaign to portray Biden, 81, as almost senile and certainly incapable of serving another term, while rarely focusing on Trump's crazy ravings, 78 years old, on the subject. election campaign or its long list of other disqualifications.

Remember what happened in February after special prosecutor Robert Hurs' report described Biden as an elderly man with a poor memory. An incredible barrage of media coverage followed. For several days, it was as if there was no other topic. At one point, the New York Times opinion section offered a list of four articles, lined up in a neat row, all on the same topic, while CNN gave us a chyron for the ages: Biden's age Is he now a bigger problem than the Trump indictments? ?

Once that frenzy subsided, another bombshell hit a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal with a devastating headline: Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slippage.

The article was widely criticized, and not just by Democrats, some of whom complained that the only official source was Republican Kevin McCarthy; the former House speaker criticized Biden's mental acuity, even though he reportedly said the complete opposite in private.

Media criticism also weighed in. Tom Jones of the nonpartisan Poynter Institute deemed the Journal article a pointed piece based largely on quotes and opinions from those who don't want to see Biden elected to a second term.

Soon after, this information began to spread throughout the media ecosystem, including dozens of television stations across the country owned by right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting, whose local anchors read from nearly identical scripts. It was a powerful anti-Biden coordination that must have delighted the Trump campaign.

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While all of this is bad for Biden, it has an upside for this debate.

Many viewers probably expect him to be crippled and inarticulate. As one of my right-wing acquaintances said: If the choice is between the orange guy and a corpse, I'll go with the orange guy.

Choice, of course, is not the case at all. It's between a traditional pro-democracy president with a solid record of accomplishments and a twice-impeached would-be autocrat with 34 felony convictions and his own alarming set of gaffes, memory lapses and campaign rants about sharks. Only one of these candidates has fomented an insurrection or appointed three Supreme Court justices who appear determined to deny women's bodily autonomy.

Biden may make a few missteps in the debate, but he will be well prepared and will strive to appear forceful, as he was during his forceful State of the Union address in March. He won't become a convincing TV star or a great orator by Thursday, but he doesn't need to.

Thanks to incessant media messaging, the bar for Biden is nowhere near that high. Those of us who care about democracy in America hope that he will easily clarify it.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/24/trump-biden-debate-rightwing-media The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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