Did a cold cause Biden’s nonsense? Trump won debate, but mostly, it made America sick | Opinion

Joe Biden and Donald Trump left lots of questions unanswered Thursday and created even more.

For example, who turned off Biden’s mind before he finished his answers?

And what was Trump talking about when he said immigrants are taking “Black jobs” or “Hispanic jobs” or that when he was president, “We had H2O”?

America woke up Friday with many more questions, mainly whether one of two men born during or right after World War II should be in office until 2029.

Trump reverted to his old rambling mess in the last half-hour of a rare midsummer presidential debate.

But by then, most of America had looked away from Biden, either out of respect or in utter terror for the nation.

For CNN and its sinking audience, “it was a horror show,” wrote Aaron Chimbel, head of the journalism school at St. Bonaventure University in New York and a pioneer in modern TV and video journalism.

“Behind a slick and modern production was a debate that was awful for the American people,” he wrote by email.

The debate left deep concern about Biden. And it didn’t allay worries about Trump.

Moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper asked questions about the future, and the candidates “just wanted to talk about the past,” Chimbel wrote. “It was a success in that it happened and that it ended.”

It would have been a great night for a power outage.

Trump fans can be thrilled at the former president’s strongman performance. At first, he stayed focused and destroyed the Democratic portrait of a dangerous madman.

But by the end of the night, he was ranting and repeating the usual wild exaggerations like about how foreigners are “destroying America,” along with bragging that he just won two golf tournaments.

“Articulate is not a word I would apply to either of these candidates,” wrote Amorette Hinderaker, an associate professor at TCU and director of the speech and debate team.

“As communicators, both were defensive, and one in particular looked weak. ... Both spent their 90 minutes addressing their opponent. Neither spoke to the millions of voters watching.”

Biden had to defend the status quo, she wrote. Trump had to say what he will do better.

“As a debate coach, I don’t believe either was particularly strong,” she wrote.

But debate coaches won’t settle Democrats’ new questions.

Biden supposedly came down with a common cold. Somehow, that kept him from making sense — and that’s what will remain a focus, maybe onto the party convention floor Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

In a party with at least five factions, he is no longer assured to be the nominee.

“The key result of this first debate is the feeding frenzy of the Democrats in their massive internal fear of Biden’s miserable performance,” wrote Weatherford College professor Darrell Castillo, once a White House staffer under President Ronald Reagan.

In a much-overlooked part of the debate, Castillo agreed with Trump blaming Biden for mishandling both Ukraine and the Middle East and for giving China too much room.

University of Texas political scientist Eric McDaniel wrote: “This is what happens when people focus on personalities instead of policy.”

Biden did nothing to ease concerns, he wrote. But the debate overall was a “pitiful representation of democracy.”

University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus called the debate “messy.”

Trump was sharper and more personable, he wrote, and Biden made points on jobs and abortion.

But it was June 27.

It’s not even July 4 yet.

“Most debates don’t matter, and this won’t be that much different,” he wrote.

This one made viewers sick.

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