Voters are thoroughly screwed, blued, and tattooed!
We’re doomed! DOO-OOMED as Linus said in the Great Pumpkin. Trump v. Biden 06-27-24 was a debacle. A blot on history. A stain upon the Republic. A national 9-1-1. Neither of these two … individuals … should be anywhere near the Presidency.
Thursday night’s televised debate was not Lincoln v. Douglas; more like a street corner mugging by an overweight punk on a cognitively disabled man. Joe! It’s bed check time at the home!
• “Time to go, Joe.” — The Atlantic
• “Biden performed so poorly that putting him on stage was pure sadism.” — American Conservativsm
• “He had one thing he had to accomplish and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age, and he failed at that tonight,” former senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said on MSNBC. — National Review
• “Biden’s struggle in debate alarms Democrats.” — New York Times page 1 headline
• “The best President of my life needs to withdraw.” — NY Times columnist Paul Krugman
• “Biden can’t make sense for two minutes at a time.” — The Nation
Blaska witnessed this 90 minutes of national shame in the company of Marc Eisen, former editor of Isthmus, at the Barrymore Theater on Madison’s hip east side among maybe 600 viewers — every one a leftie except (of course) your one and only. (One tee shirt read “Eric Hovde — for California.”) The Progressive magazine had a table. Mike Crute of the liberal Devil’s Advocate radio program served as emcee for a pre-debate panel.
When it was all over, one of the young people circulating sign-up sheets for Democrat(ic) party volunteers acknowledged that his candidate was only the better of two bad choices. The audience cheered Biden when they could but were subdued as they exited the theater. Outside on Atwood Avenue, a man who described himself as a Democrat(ic) policy adviser from Colorado said none of the above.
The answer to how did Biden win four years ago?
He stayed in the basement!
Lost in America
Early on, poor old Joe, his voice shot, his visage frozen, stiff of gait, wandered off the grounds trying to answer a question on taxes, before concluding “We finally beat Medicare.” The audience at the Barrymore groaned. GROANED! After another attempt at cognitive awareness, unsuccessful, Trump commented,
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either.”
The small surprise is that Trump didn’t repeat that observation. There was plenty of opportunity. Give Joe his due: he got in a goodly amount of zingers. Called his opponent a “whiner” and “a loser.” Recounted the Republican’s many assaults on womanhood — “this man has the morals of an alley cat.”
Your retribution, at work
Yes, let’s do Trump. Actually said members of the January 6 House Select Committee should be jailed. Said Biden was “the Manchurian Candidate.” To which Biden retorted, “This man is the criminal.”
If you did the drinking game — the Barrymore offered adult beverages in the lobby — you’d be sober as Judge Judy if you had Biden saying “Malarkey.” Said it only once. You’d be soused if you chose Trump saying “migrants.” It was his answer, it seemed, to every question. Prisons emptied, living in luxury hotels (his?), wrecking Social Security, taking jobs from black and brown folk. His larger point is correct, but why exaggerate?
Absurdly, when reminded for (something like) the fifth time to answer the question that was asked, Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, blamed Nancy Pelosi for January 6, 2021! For supposedly refusing his offer of the National Guard. A power she does not have but he does. To do what, one may ask? To defend the Constitutionally mandated counting of electoral votes from Trump’s own thugs. That’s like blaming the fire department for the arsonist.
CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash asked tough questions; they were fair and firm. The format: no audience, worked.
→ A CNN post-debate survey showed that viewers thought Trump won, 67 to 33%. Four years ago, Biden prevailed in the same poll 53 to 39%.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Think Kennedy v. Nixon 1960. Nixon had injured his leg, was fatigued, sweaty, badly made-up, furtive. JFK prepped by getting some sunshine at Palm Beach. Forget policy. Viewers of that first televised debate got a measure of a man who had been dismissed as a rich playboy. Joe Biden made Trump look good.
No need to invoke the 25th Amendment; the 81 year-old should be able to make it until January 2025. But that’s it. One gets over the common cold, which was blamed for his raspy voice. Cognitive decline can be slowed —but it is not reversible. This man cannot make it to the end of a second term if he was running for president of the retirement center condo board. Meanwhile, Kamala cackles off-stage. DOOMED!
PREDICTION: Fresh off the defenestration of Jamaal Bowman, Democrats will come to their senses and give their President that gold retirement watch. Republicans will be caught flat-footed and pay the price.
Is Jill Biden the key to saving Democrats’ bacon from the fire?
Did Bobby Junior just get a bump?
Blaska Policy Werkes 
What do you think?