With four months to go until Election Day, the earliest-ever general election debate featured two presidents \u2013 one current, one former \u2013 and a lot of bitter personal attacks. Joe Biden\u2019s universally acknowledged poor performance surprised and even panicked Democrats; Donald Trump gave a more forceful \u2013 if not truthful \u2013 performance.
The Conversation asked two scholars, Mary Kate Cary University of Virginia Department of Politics) and Karrin Vasby Anderson (Colorado State University Department of Communication Studies), to watch the debate and analyze a passage or a moment that stood out to them. Anderson is a communications scholar with a specialty in gender and the presidency, as well as political pop culture. Cary teaches political speechwriting and worked as a White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, for whom she wrote more than 100 addresses.
Karrin Vasby Anderson said, one of the first definitions of good public speaking I learned as a college debater and student of rhetoric came from the ancient Roman scholar and rhetoric teacher Quintilian. A presidential debate ought to showcase ideal orators \u2013 skilled speakers who are also people of character. The June 27 debate offered voters an either-or scenario.
Former President Donald Trump was aggressive, confident and disciplined, but he peppered his remarks with a steady stream of lies, half-truths and misinformation. President Joe Biden focused on Trump\u2019s documented record \u2013 both criminal and political \u2013 but failed as an orator, demonstrating none of the charisma and command on display during his most recent State of the Union address just four months ago.
The contrast was clear early in the debate when CNN\u2019s Dana Bash asked Trump whether he would block access to abortion medication. Trump said that he would not. He then falsely claimed that, in the lead-up to the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and removed the federal protection for abortion rights. Trump then went on offense, accusing Democrats of taking \u201cthe life of a child in the eighth month, ninth month, even after birth.\u201d
Biden\u2019s response was initially clear and resolute: \u201cIt\u2019s been a terrible thing, what you\u2019ve done,\u201d he said. But the rest of Biden\u2019s response was muddled. After \u201cveering inexplicably\u201d into an anecdote about a woman murdered by an undocumented immigrant, Biden expressed his support for people\u2019s right to choose by saying on three separate occasions that the decision should be up to a doctor, rather than the pregnant person.
Trump closed out the segment by reiterating his blatant lie in stronger terms: \u201cSo that means, he can take the life of the baby, in the ninth month and even after birth because some states, Democrat run, take it after birth.\u201d The Associated Press\u2019s fact check of this claim is succinct: \u201cInfanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.\u201d
After nearly a decade of exposure to Trump\u2019s habitual misinformation, lies about states murdering babies may not stand out as shocking in a presidential debate. And, certainly, it\u2019s an argument that should have been easy for Biden to refute. But if the populace must choose between a good person and someone who spoke well, Quintilian would remind us that someone who speaks well but has no integrity is dangerous.
The consequences for the republic could be dire.
Mary Kate Cary, – I think America just saw history being made. Within 10 minutes, a very hoarse President Joe Biden, was asked about deficit spending, lost his train of thought, and ended his answer by muttering something about \u201cbeating Medicare.\u201d It was awful.
There were so many moments when Biden looked confused and unable to process what was happening. I took notes on key exchanges, but the number of embarrassing episodes, unfinished sentences and incoherent phrases by Biden is too long to list. His answer on why he should be president in his 80s somehow veered into computer chips being made in South Korea.
Former President Donald Trump made his own share of missteps, but overall, he was relatively sharp, and restrained when he was provoked. He scored some points on the issues and did much better than he did in their first debate four years ago. Trump did better than I think many people thought he would.
Is there any way the Democrats can convincingly argue for keeping Biden as their nominee?
The bottom line: Moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash did a good job of asking substantive questions and keeping control of the debate; Trump missed an opportunity to knock it out of the park but got through it; and Biden will most likely have caused a disaster for the Democratic Party.
(The Conversation)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With four months to go until Election Day, the earliest-ever general election debate featured two presidents \u2013 one current, one former \u2013 and a lot of bitter personal attacks. Joe Biden\u2019s universally acknowledged poor performance surprised and even panicked Democrats; Donald Trump gave a more forceful \u2013 if not truthful \u2013 performance.The Conversation asked two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}