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Biden's debate preparers should be the late-night comedy writers [1]

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Date: 2024-06-29  

We're all crestfallen over Biden's poor performance in the debate. We were hoping for a knockout showing that would put him on a glide path to an eventual 7-10 point victory -- enough to eliminate the chance of Trump worshipers starting a civil war over a Trump loss. Many critics now hope for a Biden stepdown, but it's not obvious that his replacement could win convincingly. So assuming he stays in, we need to look ahead to his September debate. I suggest that his preparers for that should be the writers for Colber and Kimmel (who already get to Trump frequently).

Tom Nichols of The Atlantic has noted that Biden's staff overprepared him, "stuffing his head with factoids about Pell Grants and climate targets and tax rates and other things that are completely irrelevant in a debate with a deranged bully." Each time he responded to a question, he seemed to be racing against time and his stutter to disgorge as many of these factoids as possible ... and losing that race. And he failed "to unload any number of haymakers." What Nichols did not mention is that the best debate weapon against a bully, and especially Trump, is laughter and ridicule. (That, after all is what supposedly drove Trump to run for President in the first place.) And Trump's debate lines are fully predictable: the same tried and true themes he pushes at all his rallies.

Biden's preparers should equip him with a few one-liners he could deliver slowly and confidently in response to Trump's lies and BS, and do so easily without even using his full allotted time. It may be tough to come up with a Reagan (1980) "There you go again," or Lloyd Bentsen's (1988) "You're no Jack Kennedy." But how about, to "millions of criminals crossing our border," "Do those criminals include any of the underpaid migrant workers at your properties?" Or to "he wants you to pay 4 times as much tax," "Only you and your billionaire friends will be paying more, and many of you still won't match the % tax paid by the average American." (pushing the truth, but hey). I'm sure the writers for Colbert and Kimmel can come up with much better.

So again to Biden: Most non-MAGA viewers will already know that Trump is spouting lies with every breath, so just respond by calmly ridiculing him.

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