Keller: Disastrous performance by Biden in first 2024 presidential debate with Trump
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
BOSTON - President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump each had an obvious goal coming into Thursday night's debate, their first presidential debate of 2024.
For Trump, it was to avoid the clownish behavior and constant interruptions that backfired on him so badly four years ago. And while the fact-checkers will have a field day with his usual parade of boasts and whoppers, for the most part he accomplished his mission. Trump's delivery was crisp and forceful, however dubious the rhetoric.
For President Biden, job number one was to dispel the persistent doubts about his age and cogency. But from the get-go his presentation was halting, his voice raspy. He seemed tired and over-programmed. (During the debate his people told reporters he had a cold. Must have been a bad one.) And Biden provided his enemies with an ample supply of faltering sound bites, including one where he completely lost the thread and declared he had "beat Medicaid."
Biden debate hole
It was a disastrous performance by the incumbent, but will it make a shambles of his candidacy?
The good news for Biden - if you can call it that - is that this debacle occurred more than four months before election day, ample time for events to overtake what happened. But there's no sugar-coating the fact that if the Biden campaign was in a hole before last night, that hole is even deeper now.
And keep in mind, this election still seems likely to be determined by the undecideds, that small group of voters who tend to be uninterested in politics, not following the news closely, and supremely skeptical about partisan politics when they do pay attention.
Uninspired presidential debate
For those who tuned in, neither man offered much inspiration, Biden in the role of the elderly neighbor who isn't making much sense anymore, Trump acting the part of the self-aggrandizing boor at the end of the bar.
Will these unappetizing options keep voters home in November, or cause them to ignore their mail-in ballot? If so, it makes the race a get-out-the-vote contest, with each party trying to whip up their partisans into a "he-must-be-stopped" frenzy. It's the kind of hate-fueled petri-dish that domestic and foreign trolls thrive in and promises to deliver the ugliest four months in U.S. political history. Not to mention what comes after.
Let's hope that come next Thursday, July 4th, the weather is fine, the burgers cook up perfectly, and the fireworks displays are choice. That, at least, will give us something to celebrate.