Five Takeaways from the First 2024 Presidential Debate
Everyone’s got their opinions about the debate last night, so I suppose I may as well share mine.
1. Biden Looked and Sounded Terrible
There’s just no way around this: Biden looked and sounded old, weak and infirm. Some part of my brain kept wondering when someone in a white coat was going to find him and gently lead him back to his room. It may be that it’s hard to say exactly what makes a person look presidential, but I think we can all agree that this wasn’t it. This was one of those rare instances when it’s hard to imagine a show like SNL basing a skit on a political event, just because Biden has already nailed the caricature, leaving no room for further exaggeration.
Trump, on the other hand — well, he looked like Trump, which is never a good thing, in my book — but he looked and sounded firm and resolute and relatively healthy and strong.
And then, or course, if we extrapolate over the next four and a half years, as we all are doing, to the end of the next presidential term… it’s hard for any of us, no matter our political predispositions, to honestly say that we can picture Biden going the distance.
Biden and his team took that away from us last night.
