The Debate: We Failed President Biden
Why our reaction became the story and how we can do better.
Voters judge which side is telling the truth by who appears the most certain of their position. In debates, voters look to our reactions to decide who to believe. Trump’s supporters stood by him after he was convicted. Too many of us bailed due to one case of poor “presentation.” The failure isn’t Biden’s. It’s ours.
I don’t normally write without a structure and days of editing, but I have a lot to say today.
Balls.
We Democrats tend to assume people see things the way that we do, so much so, that we can’t fathom how people could possibly believe that Trump and Republicans are telling the truth. Unfortunately, in a media climate where people don’t know who to believe, they believe the person or people who speak with the most conviction, who appear the most certain, who waver the least in their beliefs.
I don’t know how many of you are old enough to remember this, but in the 1992 presidential primary elections, Bill Clinton came in second in the New Hampshire primary, called himself ‘The Comeback Kid” and declared victory with so much conviction that the entire press corps believed him. They believed him and his team, including legends like James Carville, Paul Begala and George Stephanopoulos. Why? because they spoke with absolute and unwavering conviction.
Our position is that substance matters more than presentation. So why would we even consider bailing out on the best President in our lifetime just because he had a bad debate? Why do we collapse in the face of the threat of bad press?
What message does that send to people? It suggests that we only support Biden because we think he’s most likely to beat Trump, and that we’d support someone else if we thought they would do better. That dramatically weakens our argument for voting for Biden.
There was a time when I thought another candidate might do better, but as Biden has wowed me with principled stand after principled stand, with his administration’s unprecedented standing up to corporate power by enforcing anti-trust law, his unwavering support of working people in defiance of decades of free-market orthodoxy, I am firmly convinced that we cannot do better.
There is no one on earth I would rather have be my president for the next 4 years, and I will proudly vote for Joe Biden again. Biden is the President I want, and that the American people should want and would want, if we did a better job of communicating his values and strengths.
Here are two social media reactions I thought did a better job.
Why our current approach does not work on Trump
This debate was a microcosm of the public debate as a whole.
In Heather Cox Richardson’s excellent analysis, she points out that Trump’s firehose of falsehood / gaslighting act is particularly effective at putting people on their defense and throwing them off their game, especially those who stutter. Trying to refute everything Trump says with a litany of facts is a recipe for disaster. You cannot refute as fast as the lies come flying at you.
We too spend most of our time producing facts to dispute the falsehoods. As in the debate, the public sees one side being confident and assertive, and the other being panicky and defensive. Meanwhile, the press does their "he said, she said" act, and people still don’t hear about what we stand for.
According to the cognitive science:
The only way to handle this is to ignore them. This works better than you might think. As actress Sophie Turner said after receiving high praise for her “masterful P.R. strategy” of ignoring ex-husband Joe Jonas’s attacks, “This way, it is easy for people to tell where the crazy is coming from.”
Instead, we must use every ounce of public exposure we have to express confidently, to the audience or the camera, how WE see the world, what WE believe, and what WE will do. We tell people what we are willing to fight for and show them how we will not back down.
If Biden had been prepped to do that instead of trying to refute Trump’s lies, he would have ignored Trump and scored point after point with the voters.
The press would have said, "Trump lies. Biden looks Presidential."
That is what we must ALL do. We must go out there are use our “air time” to present our best case to the public.
Not legislation. Values. Vision.
Some say that we should give people a list of the policies that we would pass if given majority power. We should do that. But we have to communicate the values those policies are based on, and portray our vision for the better life that we are trying to provide for people.
Here is just a partial list of what we are trying to do:
Make it possible for everyone to afford a home.
Restore balance to the climate: protect the human habitat we all depend on to survive.
Make neighborhoods safe by investing in crime prevention.
Provide everyone the education they need to live the life they choose to live.
Make it possible for people to retire without worry.
Provide safe schools where our kids can learn common American values like cooperation, respect, equality, and responsibility.
Fight for our freedom:
Physical liberty: the right to both take care of your body and determine what happens to it.
Self-government: the right to political self-determination, to have an equal say in who represents you.
Economic fairness: the right to determine the course of your own economic life, which requires…
Seeing to it that our economic system provides enough opportunity so that everyone can find a way to support their family, a way that fits their strengths and meets their needs.
Hold people accountable for their actions, including police, politicians, and corporate leaders.
Champion and practice fairness, equality, and solidarity in every part of American life.
And so on.
I can tell you, it feels good to talk this way. Try it. It makes you feel proud. And people LOVE it, they respond to it in an emotional, hopeful way that changes the entire mood of the conversation. This is what works.
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In solidarity,
Antonia
Contact me about communications consulting and custom content at antonia@antoniascatton.com or (202) 922-6647.
NOTES:
Learn more about what we should say:
Learn more about why attacking Trump does not work:
This was a great post and a great reminder of the contrast between these two candidates. Thanks for writing this.
Post Bombed Debate
This is directed to those who may feel dismay and those who still have hope following the debate. For those who say, “we’ve lost” or “Biden cannot stay in the race,” I hope that you will hold on a little longer. I am sorry your hope was so easily dashed. To those who are hanging on I say, it is not our hope that will keep D. J. Trump out of the presidency, it is our strength. Nobody says that this monumental campaign is going to run smoothly with no bumps in the road. President Biden, after multiple trips around the world, with a cold and a week of being subjected to his campaign staffers’ angst and push on debate issues, came and underperformed. This is one debate. Other presidents have bombed in a debate and went on to win their races. Take a breath and relax.
We all grow older; it is the human condition. It does not make us less effective in our decision making, it just takes a little more time. Biden’s decision-making strength comes from his weighing the numbers, the effects on people and our economy, and a multitude of other things. When asked a question he processes a lot, and processing and verbalizing in a two-minute window is a challenge for anyone, especially for an older individual.
Spewing lies is a much easier task. Which was done, as expected, but with no pushback from the moderators, other than a three time repeat of original, unanswered questions, by Diana Bash. I refuse to go into the fact checking Trump in this comment, I’ll leave that to the professionals.
Remember what a dark hole we are viewing in Trump’s Project 2025 plan. I plan to work for the elections of Biden and Harris, and every clear-thinking Democrat up and down the ballot. I accept the bombed debate outcome of this one debate and will move forward, as I sincerely hope all of you will as well.
NOTE: In the next debate, if it happens, I think that the inclusion of notes, on cards or paper, and a three-minute response time would be helpful. While muting the mic was a well-intended addition, it did not mute a debater from making himself be heard on the stage. This was unfortunate, particularly when someone was spewing lies, although it did make the audience’s listening atmosphere calmer.
I am posting this everywhere I go. Have a good day.