Amazingly, we are just a little over 48 hours away from the first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle. I don't want to oversell it because every face-off between candidates running for president is usually a big deal. Yet I dare to say this might be the most anticipated presidential debate since incumbent Ronald Reagan faced off against former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984.
In the first debate between those two candidates, Reagan was accused of being sluggish, and the Mondale campaign looked to take advantage of that by saying that Reagan was too old and could not keep up with the rigors of the presidency. For the second debate, Reagan performed a political slam dunk by responding to a question about his age by saying he would not take advantage of Mondale's youth and inexperience in such a manner and essentially ended any chance Mondale had of winning with that one quip.
Of course, Reagan went on to win 49 of 50 states, losing only in Minnesota, which was Mondale's home state, by only 3,000 votes.
The bar is going to be kept much lower for this version of the 2024 debates which is 40 years after the Reagan-Mondale version. No quick quip from Biden will save him like it did Reagan four decades ago. Mostly because Biden would have to throw some weird story in and end it with the word "JACK."
Biden just has to make sure he is wearing pants and his fly is zipped up and he will lead in the hearts and minds of Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, plus most of the mainstream media. They all will be praying he does not do a Joe Biden thing at any time during this debate and, by default, give Donald Trump a victory by being just competent and sentient.
I wrote yesterday about the job that the folks at the host network have to try and pull off here.
CNN: Desperately Trying to Make Sure They Do Their Part in Protecting
Joe Biden During This Week's Debate
CNN and Kasie Hunt have the solemn duty to do everything they can to keep the Joe Biden 2024 train on the tracks, but the engine of that train is leaking everything that makes a well-running engine run. Mostly oil, which in this case is just pure common sense — which, of course, most Bidens lack.
Hunt getting ticked off that her "colleague" Jake Tapper is being attacked for his actions over the past eight years is just pre-debate blather to try and use as an excuse after the possible unraveling of the Biden election bid because some Democrats will blame Tapper, CNN, and everyone else but Jill Biden after this event. This is the nature of politics, of course, but it is different this time.
They can't hide Biden in the basement this time and I don't even know if CNN has one. The brass at the network probably thought this was a great idea when they scheduled it, but after the last month of seeing Biden freeze up and babble, their task just became impossible.
The only thing that could save CNN and Joe Biden is if Donald Trump pushes Joe off stage if he wanders too close to the edge, and even then, his polling numbers could still go up.
In the meantime, let's just hope Kasie and CNN have all their cover stories in place about why they could have never guessed Biden was as bad as he will come.hh media will
The media, in preparation for this event, is doing its usual knee-jerk reaction of protecting the person who most aligns with their feelings over facts worldview. Even though they know Joe Biden is a damaged product and should NOT be up there as the presumptive Democrat nominee.
'One-Trick Pony' Biden Blames Trump for Everything, Accepts Responsibility for Nothing
Earlier Tuesday, while I was driving, I was listening to an on-record phone call held by the Trump campaign as they gave their view of how this event will go and how the media will try to spin it no matter how bad Sleepy Joe flubs on Thursday.
They laid out how they focused on reminding the American people of how the economy was under four years of President Trump and the last three and a half years of Joe Biden. Seems that the Biden team has adopted a mantra of trying to tell people not to believe what their lying eyes are telling them.
The economy is great.
Illegal immigration is not an issue.
Antisemitism is something that would never occur here under Joe Biden.
This led one of the participants to say that Joe Biden just needs to show up on Thursday, and he will win a Participation Trophy.
Get ready to watch "Morning Joe" on Friday morning to see how pretty that trophy is.
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