President Joe Biden has always had a stutter. I’ll take that over a lying felon | Opinion
President Joe Biden at times struggled to convey his thoughts during his 90-minute debate with former President Donald Trump on CNN Thursday. He has stuttered all his life. For some commentators on social media, Biden’s stutter means he is feeble. It means he’s unfit.
Biden is not feeble. He’s an honorable man. Trump is unfit.
On Thursday, he was back to his old script: Lying, demagoguing, filibustering, and offering simpleton answers to complex questions.
Opinion
What would Trump do on climate change?
“I absolutely want clean water,” Trump said.
On what he would do on addiction?
“The number of drugs coming across our border now is the largest we’ve ever had.” Is that an answer? No. Trump had no answers that would be of any use to Americans.
Thursday’s debate was a debacle, as expected. There is no way to stand next to someone like Trump without being soiled. Even as a younger man, Biden was never suited for the hot-take nature of televised debates. He’s never been polished like his old boss, former President Barack Obama. He doesn’t have the easy affability of former President George W. Bush or the slick style of former President Bill Clinton.
He’s lived his public life in a sound-byte-free zone and no matter how much his handlers feed him pithy lines that Obama and Clinton would crush, Biden doesn’t have that gift of delivery.
And if that is the standard here, that elevated glib is determinative in selecting the commander-in-chief, we have dulled our brains to the point where we deserve the leaders we get.
Was it tough to watch Biden try to be something he isn’t while standing next to Trump? It was. At times, it was brutal. The exercise may have been the nadir of the Baby Boomer generation. At the very least, it’s in the top 5.
But let’s separate pageantry from politics. We don’t do debates befitting the sanctity of the Oval Office anymore and we haven’t for a long time. Thursday night was the product of decades of simplifying key issues in televised debates. The last good one may have been John F. Kennedy vs Richard Nixon in 1960 and most of us weren’t alive for that one.
This election before us is not about debating. No matter how much we wish for two other candidates to be vying for the big prize, the choice is between Trump and Biden.
I’ll take the honorable man over the felon.
