After the first debate, which was a word I do not use in print or on the radio, what did we learn? The format didn’t work and there needed to be an opening and closing statement. There should have been timers and the microphones should have been controlled during the 2-minute segment parts. It seems the powers that be wanted the interruptions. Chris Wallace is a good interviewer but he was not a good moderator last night. Wallace was the real loser of the night.
The president missed opportunities to talk about his accomplishments. There were two occasions that former Vice President Biden talked about President Trump “coming out of his bunker.” If there was a time for a zinger, it was then and the President should have reminded people that he has been out taking questions almost every day and it is former VP Biden who has not been available.
On another occasion, the former VP mentioned trade deals and the President could have talked about the USMCA, other bi-lateral deals and the peace accords in the Middle East, but he missed the opportunity because he was trying to score gotcha points.
On the Biden side, even though he felt attacked, calling the President a “clown” and telling him to “shut up” was a miss for him. He also missed opportunities to make points about why to vote for him and it has got to be more than “Orange Man bad.”
So I give both candidates and the moderator an “F.”
So what next? I think we will see a better VP debate and to be clear, this one is important because there is more than a 50/50 chance that if one of these folks are the Vice President, they will be President before the end of the term. Folks, let’s go younger next time.
For the next Presidential debate with Steve Scully of C-Span as the moderator, here are a few pieces of advice. Have control of the microphones. Make sure only the people who are supposed to talk are talking and start controlling things early. If they devolve into what happened last night, tell them you will be leaving the stage and you will comeback when they start acting like grownups. And please have opening and closing statements, it will help. Be a moderator and not part of the discussion and keep control. Fact-checking is for the press, not for the moderator.
Finally, first debates are notoriously bad. They will get better and maybe we can sway the last 3% who are not telling the truth about whether they’ve made up their minds.
