Will Democrats replace Biden at the August convention of the party?
By Anjan Roy
The US had a presidential TV debate on Thursday which was a major pointer to the kind of electoral contest in store. By that logic, the Americans are facing a senile person, the incumbent President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee who cannot control his reflexes and responses, compared with the Republican rival Donald Trump who keeps lying and saying atrocious things.
The debate was being talked about all over for days and when it actually came to pass, Americans saw they had before them only a Hobson's Choice. Two old men fighting for a supreme prize, which calls for the responses of a far younger person.
If you support one, you are damned; if you back the other you are done for. It looks as though a surprise winner in the debate could be a lady, Kamala Harris. Or even Michelle Obama.
Biden betrayed that he was old and not really upto the task of being the supreme commander of the American Forces, if in emergency he has to take an immensely important decision at three in the morning, said one observer.
Biden claimed he created 15,000 jobs. As a matter of fact, observers say, some 15 million jobs were created. Biden said that senior citizens had $200 medical assistance, in effect it was $2000. He had jumbled up the figures altogether.
After the debate, organised by CNN, the Democratic Party, whose presidential nominee is Joe Biden, is wondering whether to make a mid-course, rather late in the course, correction.
Some of the insiders now hope that maybe some of the president's close advisers or his own relations, could advise him on stepping aside and making room for a new candidate.
Inevitably names are cropping up who that could be. Some of the Democrats are talking of replacing Biden with Kamala Harris. However, like a true party loyalist, Kamala Harris has already weighed in saying Biden has done well in the debate.
Most of the listeners complained that Biden's talk was muffled, unintelligible and confused. One European diplomat said that even though he followed English well, he could hardly make anything out of what Biden was mumbling.
Trump on the other appeared cold, well prepared and did a sense of being in full possession of his faculties. Unlike in the previous debate, he did not shout and rail and wander about angrily to give Biden any chance of saying “You shut up, man” as he did last time.
One observer, not a Republican, pointed out Trump showed his genius in marketing.
When faced with the question of January 6 events, of attacks on the US Capitol and the senator and legislators instigated by Trump, he just went on a tangent. He said that on January 6 USA on top, the economy was in better shape than ever, the taxes were low and the prices were not rising and America was admired all over the world.
Trump was fighting on a weak wicket. He was only recently convicted of felony charges at a New York court on 35 counts. However, he lied on many of the issues and even denied he ever had any sex with a porn star.
The sex scandal about Trump's sexual escape with the porn artist had already been tried and the courts had gone against him. There has been proof of his having paid hush money to the complainant.
Trump was also agile and he adopted a nuanced stance on the red hot issue of abortion as a right to American women. While Trump had been pro-life and opposed abortion altogether, he had now modified his stance, knowing that a strict pro-life stance won't get him votes.
Where the debate was however the centre of attraction all over the world and among diplomats was that American election results would have a defining impact on global relations. The European diplomats were glued to the debate and they have openly come out with their disappointment with Biden's performance.
The debate, if it was to be taken as an indicator of presidential election, settles the die strongly against Biden.
Russian commentators have been found to be gleeful about the debate, and sarcastically complimented the incumbent president for managing not to tumble over. Trump on the other hand would possibly have struck a friendly note to the Russians.
Trump openly claimed that the USA had so far given Ukraine more funds than all of Europe put together. That was a lie and the Ukrainians are downbeat about the debate. If Trump wins the election, Ukraine would surely lose all American support and Russia would roll over.
Trump had continued on his old vein of denigrating NATO. Trump had threatened to withdraw from NATO in case he came back to power. Europe is seeking to come to terms with that idea, particularly when it is faced with a hostile Russia threatening western Europe directly.
The former US president, Barack Obama, now has emphasised the need for value based choice for a president — choose someone who has not worked only for himself but a public cause. (IPA Service)
