Ask A Genius 980: Lies Versus Stammer, Ode to Old Age
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/06/28
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, I watched some of the debate. I have some preliminary thoughts. If you want to press yours first, you can. Mine are going to be shorter.
Rick Rosner: So I’ll start. It was fucking amazing, not in a good way. Biden did so badly; he came out with a raspy, soft voice and looked a little shell-shocked during the entire debate. His expressions were mostly not good. His sentences were stumbly. He got a lot of facts out. He came out and just started talking really fast, rattling off a bunch of stuff, most of which was right, but he looked discombobulated. His people said he has a cold, which he probably does. Trump, on the other hand, all of his answers were either not answering the questions or just lying about everything, or both. But Trump looked a lot healthier and more confident. If you didn’t know he was lying about everything, you’d think he gave a pretty good performance. The post-debate poll had Trump winning it 67 to 33. Trump has never won a presidential poll before. He did much better. The Democrats are all freaking out. There’s a lot of initial panic. They’re not sure Biden can win looking this frail. But then there’s been a backlash to the freaking out, with people going online and saying, “Everybody stop freaking out. This is just one debate.” If it turns out that he is sick, maybe, a single debate doesn’t have to move the candidate’s chance that much, though this was a shellacking, as Obama put it after one of his terrible debate performances. If Trump is smart, which he’s not, but he is cunning, he will turn down the next debate. They’re scheduled to do one more debate, but Trump should back out of it because there’s no way he can do better than he did tonight, and Biden can do worse. So there you go. Your thoughts?
Jacobsen: The first immediate impressions of the “debate” between President Biden and former President Trump were the following. One, there should be an upper age limit on any public office at some point. Even in Singapore, a very smart leader like Lee Hsien Loong stepped down. There should be a consideration of age and limitations on leadership because we know a lot more about the science of cognition and cognitive decline. Although people live longer and their brains work longer, that should be taken into account.
Rosner: Yet, I’m not sure this was cognitive decline if he had a cold, if he hadn’t slept, or if they’d given him Benadryl. On the other side, Trump was trying to… Fox News people have been saying they’re just going to get Trump all hyped up on cocaine or some other amphetamine so he’s peppy for the debate. Obviously, he wasn’t peppy. He was the opposite of peppy. But you could make the same explanation that this isn’t the way he is all the time. Kamala Harris didn’t do well; she was just on one network, but the anchor asked her if he is like this all the time. She refused to answer the question. She should have answered the question and just said no he isn’t, that he seemed to be under the weather. So we’re waiting for a couple of things. One is, was he actually sick? And two, did he lose a bunch of voters according to next week’s polls? And then there’s, I guess, a third thing, which is, who are you going to replace him with? Because nobody else has as good a chance of beating Trump as he does unless he’s fallen so far that somebody like Newsom or some other Democratic senator, or Cathy Hochul, or Gretchen Whitmer, steps in. I’m not sure any of those fairly unknown figures can come in with four months to go. Sorry, go ahead.
Jacobsen: That was more general. That should apply in a Canadian case that arose too, by the way. In practical terms, we need to think seriously about the facts of the human organism and leadership because leadership is important. It sets a guide to a country. So that’s a general point, those first impressions. The first distinction, my stepdad, who’s half First Nations, half white, said those two aren’t really wanted by either side.
Rosner: Americans don’t overwhelming like either candidate in a way and twenty-five percent of Americans don’t want either candidate which is actually lower than I thought it was. But it’s the highest since they’ve started tracking this.
Jacobsen: What did you think it was other than a quarter before?
Rosner: I thought it was probably closer to half of all Americans who would grumble about both of them. So, Biden has done much better than this. In the State of the Union and press conferences, I’m not convinced that he is like this all the time. It would be nice to have him prove it by doing another debate, but I’m not sure that Trump’s people will let him do another debate. But Biden will have plenty of opportunities to give speeches, and speeches aren’t the same thing as debates, but debates are themselves. What did you think of the format of the debate?
Jacobsen: I like the idea of not having a crowd response.
Rosner: What about the specific thing that was?
Jacobsen: It’s interesting to have no audience because, especially given the heated nature of American politics now, having no audience removes a key factor for knowing how you’re doing in the moment. Also, the idea of commercial breaks. If that’s a regular thing or not, that may actually play into the hands of two older gentlemen to get a rest in the middle of a 90-minute debate or whatever.
Rosner: Recently, commercial breaks have been part of it, which is only fair. Even for younger people, they only got two breaks in 95 minutes. They really weren’t allowed to do any fact-checking on them. Trump said a lot of bullshit; the most they could do was say, “You didn’t answer the question, and you still have…” They got two minutes to answer each question… they’d say, “Well, you still have 80 seconds left,” then they’d ask them the question again. Trump danced around the question more than Biden did. It was also weird that Biden only got eight questions and Trump got 13 questions. I would like to see if this second debate, which isn’t scheduled until September, will happen. If so, it would be nice if they could get Trump to agree to anything. Why would he? He can just say, “Fuck it, I won the first debate. I’m not going to.” So what else you got on it?
Jacobsen: The general stereotypes Americans have of Biden and Trump are broadly true. Trump lies, and Biden stammers. Those are more factual things but look worse in a debate, or at least in that debate. Because I haven’t seen any of those others. So, age is an unavoidable factor. At the same time, what this is telling me about North American culture, because I’m even hearing myself say this now, is one of the last prejudices is old ageism. It’s shameful to look down on young people. It’s shameful to look down on old people who are trying to run for leadership. So, at the same time, we also have that prejudice. I’m not saying pro-Biden or pro-Trump. I’m saying anti-old ageism.
Rosner: Yes. So anyway, it was fucking terrible if you support Biden. It’s hard immediately after. Carole couldn’t even watch it. She walked out after 10 minutes because it was giving her too much of the sads. But it’ll take a few days to shake out to see if it’s really as disastrous as all that. Because we’ll have to see how many people watched the debate. Because if you’re just hearing about the debate, you would hear that Biden looked and sounded like shit and that Trump told a bunch of lies. Which, that seems like better for Biden or closer to a tie than watching it. And Biden didn’t seem confused about the facts. He seemed to have a hard time getting the sentences out. It’s more important to understand the facts, and he said a ton of them. Knowing what’s going on is more important than whether your sentences are stumbling. But yes, it was pretty shocking. Now, what is this about old Dallas?
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Rick Rosner, American Television Writer, http://www.rickrosner.org
Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
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