Well, on the bright side, Joe Biden and Democrats quickly dispensed with the false Donald Trump rumors about a “Juiced Joe” barreling onto the debate stage last night.
Had Biden not been a sitting US president volunteering to subject himself to what CNN thinks passes for a presidential debate, or even journalism, the event would have had all the earmarks of felony elder abuse.
Could Biden’s campaign team, or even someone backstage with an ounce of sympathy, not have gotten that very, very tired old man a cup of tea, or a Lifesaver or even a sip of water?
And after days of preparing for this, after a lifetime of being in the public eye, and knowing that almost everyone in the free world was watching Biden, was there no one on the debate coaching staff to teach the guy to not stand there and stare vacant-eyed with his mouth open?
Job One Thursday night for Biden was to persuade the nation he is not too old to run the country.
Instead, Biden effectively convinced the nation that he’s too old to drive a car or safely operate a can opener.
It’s not, however, as if Donald Trump won the debate. There was no winner. In fact, there were no survivors.
The first casualties of the evening were CNN “debate” hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. They clearly spent far more time on coifs, makeup and wardrobe than they did creating questions that would serve the public’s need to know details about two people on the short list for the most important job on the planet.
The questions sounded like they were created by Chat GPT rather than living, breathing journalists.
The national press corps in North Korea and Russia ask far more penetrating questions of leaders in those countries than Americans witnessed with CNN’s version of “Kids Say The Darndest Things.”
To their credit, they were able to correctly narrate the timers limiting each of the candidates’ rantings, panting, delusions and what might even have been petit mal seizures.
If ever there were a compelling argument in favor of the death of TV news, Bash and Tapper offered every part of it.
Americans would have been much better served with queries like, “So, what’s your favorite color?” than voters were by moderators’ robotic stares after Trump ranted about Biden being responsible for Trump being blamed for causing and participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
All they did was stare while allowing Trump to erupt like explosive diarrhea all over the debate stage. Americans could only watch as the Trump “lie-o-meter” spin like the “this purchase” reel on the gas pump on Parker Road, while the debate moderators let him, with a pleasant smile.
Trump came off like a living warning label on the danger of drinking too much Red Bull.
While Biden came off like the guy unable to make it back to the group-home van after a shopping field trip to Walgreens, Trump made it clear that his grip on reality, once tenuous, is now gone.
Trump is in cogent freefall, reacting to the virtual reality show he and his cronies have created as if it were real, or even loosely based on reality.
He breathtakingly tried, for months, to overturn his own election and step into a second term as the nation’s first dictator.
He denies and sidesteps the fact that even the far-right allies he collected as he went into the White House and held hostage have come out in droves to testify in courtrooms, depositions and their own missives about how corrupt, uneducated, and malevolent Trump was as the nation’s dullard president.
Trump was as insightful and meaningful as a toy gun firing blasts of confetti stamped with fortune-cookie wisdoms like, “Gaza would never have happened,” and, “I know you are but what am I?” and, “The bad weather is because of Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
Who, in their right mind, would trust someone behaving like Trump to hand out candy to kids on Halloween, let alone hold the nuclear codes. This is a man that kept state secrets in his Mar-a-Lago poo poo and then lied about it.
CNN provided nothing more than a 90-minute documentary on the failure of the American two-party political system and why TV news is no more valuable to the public for accuracy, context and accountability than Trump’s own Truth Social account.
Americans deserve a do-over here.
Call in the reporters from Aurora’s Rangeview High School and get these candidates on a roundtable with some water bottles to let those journalists, far more qualified and capable, get straight answers from two sorriest presidential candidates in American history.
Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com
Brilliant and funny round up of last night’s disgrace. Thank you Dave!
Perry is so afflicted with TDS as to be abhorrently delusional. From the article, “Had Biden not been a sitting US president volunteering to subject himself to what CNN thinks passes for a presidential debate, or even journalism, the event would have had all the earmarks of felony elder abuse.” Perry’s zeal to insult Trump leads him to purposefully omit important facts. The important fact is that Biden’s own team established the rules for the debate. Perry’s overt lie, in attempting to blame CNN for the rules, is yet another example of the failed standards at the Sentinel and a prime reason why the Sentinel needs to beg for money. No reasonable person looks to the Sentinel for factual news……it is fallacious entertainment at best. Well done disingenuous Dave!
If my guy didn’t win, nobody did! Waaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
The “debate” wasn’t really a debate, but a shouting match. As for who, at this point, is best qualified to be President, I’ll take the old one who will ask for advice from trustworthy sources over the old one who refuses to ask anyone for advice because he’s the only one in the entire world who knows it all.
The “debate” wasn’t a debate. Poorly moderated, I agree, but most are. Trump was his usual arrogant, self-important blowhard. Biden was an embarrassment, as usual.
I’m a registered Independent and feel I have no one, at this point, to vote for. If Trump becomes President we can kiss democracy goodbye. We will have a self-serving tyrant.
If Biden returns, the immigration dilemma will get worse and China will continue to buy land close to all our military installations.
Explain how exactly Trump will end democracy. My money says you can’t.
Sad choice, by any standard