The End of the Road

In a hard to watch debate American power is redefined and up for grabs

What was most revealing last night was the media storm after the debate. The entire commentariat from left to right came out almost unanimously in its amazement and shock and it was followed by carefully crafted calls for Joe Biden to relinquish his candidacy. For many other observers it did not come as a surprise, in fact the clearly visible state of the president’s declining mental and physical alertness has been evident for many months, if not for years. It has begged many questions; from the risks the Democrats were taking to the plain question as to what medications Joe was on. It was clear to see, it looked us in the eye, but many chose not to see it. Until yesterday and then it went viral.

Two key things to discuss here.

First, the human aspect. It was actually painful to watch the president on live television and hear him talk or just see him gaze in confusion when Trump was speaking. Sure there were better moments from time to time, but it hurt to see the once formidable Biden being exposed in such a humiliating way. It was disturbing and wherever you stand, Joe did not deserve this. Why was he put up to this? What was the role of his staff? His family? The man himself? Apparently there had been two weeks of intense preparations, did no one see it coming? Did no one care enough to pull the plug on this misguided effort to force the president to prove something that he simply couldn’t? And save the president and the nation from embarrassment?

Worse, his wife Jill after the debate applauded and complimented her husband’s performance as if talking to a kid in kindergarten: “you got all the questions right!” That moment was as revealing as it was uncomfortable.

Sometimes you have to make the hard choice and secure a legacy and create the gentle and honourable exit. The Democratic Party had a role to play here, but they opted for the lie which has now been uncovered by inflicting an incredible amount of pain on an aging man. And on a nation.

That brings us to the second point. So much like the Kremlin in the old days, a lie was perpetrated. And with calculated political reason: to show the world that someone was firmly in charge in Washington and that everything was moving along nicely. We are strong and stand united. But now the question is: who is actually in charge? And: what else is happening behind the scenes in the White House that we should but do not know about? And that is thinking out loud about the presidency today, what about the elections coming up? With some major international crises happening and where every opponent will exploit even the tiniest amount of American weakness. You think Putin and Xi weren’t watching? Sinwar and Nasrallah were probably tuned into CNN last night as well. All of them were witnessing disarray at the heart of the world’s most powerful nation.

And then what is next? We have a short time span to the Democratic National Convention in August and the actual elections in November. If Biden accepts the inevitable and steps back as the nominee it will be up to the Democrats to elect a new one. One that can take on Trump and win. It could be Kamala Harris; it could be Gavin Newsom. Other names were floating around last night, but all of them were deemed to be too light for the role before and that was why Biden remained the tasked man. We will have to see what will transpire, an awful lot is up in the air right now, but any new nominee will only have a perilously short amount of time to make his or her case. It will affect America as a power, as a democracy and the course of world history. Like last night, you will have a front row seat to watch it unfold.