\n<\/p>\n
It was an awful night.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump<\/strong> is an aspiring authoritarian, a liar, a bigot, a criminal\u2014not to mention an idiot. His presidency was an unmitigated disaster. But most people knew that going into Thursday night\u2019s debate<\/a>. The question heading into the evening was whether President Joe Biden<\/strong> could overcome the stubborn concerns that have been a storm cloud over his election bid: the unfavorable poll numbers, the intra-party divisions, and, of course, the matter of his age and vigor.<\/p>\n That last part was, unfortunately, the story of the night Thursday. Biden struggled. His voice was hoarse. He strained to make an impression. Trump lied and lied and lied, spewed bullshit and bullshit and more bullshit\u2014but Biden seemed unable to block the blows, let alone land any haymakers of his own. The closest he came? \u201cYou have the morals of an alley cat,\u201d Biden said as he ticked off a few of Trump\u2019s civil and legal issues, including the 34 felonies he was recently convicted on.<\/p>\n But by that point, the damage was done. Trump was as mendacious and horrifying as ever\u2014and looked every one of his 78 years, under the caked-on makeup and curiously coiffed hair. But he came out of the gate with more energy than Biden, and that energy overpowered the 81-year-old president\u2019s efforts to bring him back to reality. \u201cI really don\u2019t know what he said,\u201d Trump said after one Biden attack. \u201cI don\u2019t think he knows what he said either.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden was able to beat back those kinds of barbs when the two met on the debate stage four years ago. \u201cWill you shut up, man?\u201d an exasperated Biden asked that time around<\/a>, on his way to a 2020 victory that ended Trump\u2019s chaotic four years in office and brought substantive policy changes on a number of fronts.<\/p>\n But this time, the president had trouble making that positive case for his presidency, and one imagines many of his surrogates\u2014from Vice President Kamala Harris<\/strong> on down\u2014could have done better. Biden reportedly<\/a> had a cold during the proceedings, which would explain the raspy voice. But so many Democrats would\u2019ve made mincemeat of Trump when the former president claimed, for instance, that \u201cwe had H20, the best numbers ever\u201d in a typically-asinine response to a climate change question. Biden found himself litigating the size of Trump\u2019s height and getting cut off on a \u201cby the way\u2026\u201d after running up against the rules his own campaign put forth.<\/p>\n The mic cut-off and the lack of a crowd was supposed to allow Biden to focus on substance, to keep Trump from steamrolling him, as is the former president\u2019s preferred debate style. But he still<\/em> let Trump steamroll him, getting sidetracked by a debate over the number of presidential historians who rank his predecessor as the worst of all time. \u201cLook it up, go online,\u201d Biden said. \u201c159, 158\u2014I don\u2019t know the exact number\u2014presidential historians, they\u2019ve had meetings and they voted. \u2018Who is the worst president in American history?\u2019 Best to worst. They said he was the worst in all of American history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n