What Biden could’ve, should’ve, would’ve done, if he had been thinking, was, at the beginning of the debate, told the audience he had “a cold”, “a sore throat”, “I lost my voice” – whatever – and “please bear with me.”
Or…if he had been thinking, he could’ve, should’ve, would’ve simply called in sick. “Hey, I’m on antibiotics and God knows what else, and have pretty much lost my voice. How about rescheduling for next week?” If you and I can do that, so can a President
… Well, that may not have flown.
But what he shouldn’t have done, couldn’t have done, wouldn’t have done if he had any sense was go on LIVE TV in a state so weakened he was bound to make Trump’s 30 lies in just 90 minutes, (not to mention 6th grade sneers and insults) look good.
Granted, Biden snapped back the next day. Granted it was just one TV performance. But boy, was it devastating for Biden fans. Which is a real problem.
Not for Biden fans, for all of us.
Ever since the Kennedy-Nixon Debates, the country has used TV performances to judge our politicians. Interestingly, radio listeners that night thought Nixon won, while TV viewers thought Kennedy won. (Nixon didn’t think he needed makeup because he was so good looking on radio).
It makes you wonder where the country would be if TV performances hadn’t shaped so many elections.
You know one of the least watched TV channels? Congress’ channel, C-Span. You know why? Because it’s boring. TV is a medium of entertainment. 90 per cent of politics, particularly as performed by Presidents, is non-entertainment. It’s boring.
A few examples:
* Endlessly negotiating with other politicians – and being civil – with people you wouldn’t nod to in the street;
*Becoming expert in subjects ranging from nuclear weapons to health care, inflation to immigration, Oligarchs to Evangelicals, Wall Street to Main Street…;
*Learning about all kinds of weaponry, from trench warfare to cyber-warfare;
*Knowing the military, economic, and political capabilities of China, Russia, Taiwan, Israel…well…everywhere;
*Mastering subjects like foreign affairs, foreign cultures, foreign religions…
*Herding cats (otherwise known as dealing with Congress);
*Saying “mother may I?” to secret service agents 24/7, whether it’s taking a walk or going to Europe;
*Never. Ever. Being off-duty (even when you’re sick);
*Having wisdom and experience;
*Through it all maintaining integrity, dignity, and compassion.
TV debates have been fun to watch, well…except for Biden fans this week. But debates only reveal the TV performance side of the candidates. They show very little of how a candidate would actually function as president.
Maybe we should look less at their TV performances and more at their job performances. An elections is, after all, a job application and there’s far more to the job of President than TV performance.
The last thing we want to think about on November 6th is what we would’ve, could’ve, should’ve done with our vote.