President Biden’s first debate is weak If history is any barometer, this may not prove to be a final defeat for him. Incumbent leaders often struggle to consolidate their position, but eventually win re-election.
“There are bad argument nights. Trust me, I know,” Barack Obama wrote: “But this election is still a choice between a man who has fought for ordinary people all his life and a man who only thinks about himself,” he said on social media platform XFriday.
Biden faced fierce media criticism and reports of panic within his party after a disastrous confrontation with Trump. The two were tied in polls before the debate, but Trump was leading the US Got some points over the weekend After the debate.
Biden appeared to struggle with his answers and his words faltered, prompting Trump to say at one point, “I don’t know what he just said.” Democratic governors have scheduled a meeting with Biden later this week, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, on Tuesday became the first elected Democrat to urge Biden to step down from the 2024 presidential race and allow a new candidate to face Trump.
Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon pointed to history to defend the president’s performance, telling NBC in an interview that “every single president that I’ve had in my lifetime has had a first debate.”
“Obviously, the stakes are higher for us because we’re up against Donald Trump,” she said. “Obviously, we have more work to do because the president is 81, but even in 2012, it was a terrific debate. I was there. I remember it well.”
Dillon argued that the month of June is early enough in the campaign cycle that Biden could correct course, as several of his predecessors have done.
Former President Trump received significant approval from Republican and independent voters who were part of a Fox News digital focus group during his response to President Biden’s claims about immigration. (Fox News Digital)
Obama faced strong criticism after his first debate with Republican candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, when he saw headlines in liberal newspapers like The Washington Post like “Why Was President Obama So Bad?”
Politico’s headline simply stated, “Obama is faltering” following the October 3, 2012 debate in Denver, the first of three debates that Obama won in his second term, despite the press having exposed weaknesses from the first night.
The Washington Post claimed that Obama seen on the debate stage in Denver “looked almost unrecognizable from the man who won in 2008.” Al Gore tried to defend the president by arguing that he was possibly taken aback by Denver’s unusually high altitude.
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No one can forget how Ronald Reagan performed in the debate against Walter Mondale in Louisville on October 7, 1984. Reagan maintained a commanding lead in the polls despite concerns over his age. At the time, he was 73, the oldest man to hold the presidency. But according to Slate, the polls fell by seven points, suggesting that Mondale had beaten his opponent.
A poll taken after the first debate between George W. Bush and his opponent John Kerry in 2004 found that voters thought Kerry would win by a two-to-one margin, and Pew Research found Although Busch maintained his lead overall, the gap to him “shrinks” over the following weekend.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, left, and President Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, during a presidential debate at the University of Denver on October 3, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In fact, Pew noted that, for the first time in 16 years of analyzing polls, a Democratic candidate performed better among likely voters than among all registered voters. The organization described the “high level of Democratic motivation to vote” as “surprising” because only half of Democratic voters were confident that Kerry would win the election.
Many described Bush as “defensive” and “nervous” in his answers, while they also described Kerry as “arrogant” and sometimes “unsure.” Those surveyed found Bush to be more “honest” than the more “confident” Kerry.
Republican candidate Ronald Reagan (left) and Democrat Walter Mondale debating before the 1984 presidential election. (Corbis via Getty Images)
In the Bush vs. Kerry case, Pew showed that voters’ motivations can often trump perceived performance in a single debate. Bush supporters were “overwhelmingly” more likely to vote for Kerry than against him, while Kerry supporters were more likely to vote against Bush than for Kerry.
Brett O’Donnell, a Republican communications strategist and president of O’Donnell & Associates, told Fox News Digital that the current president appears effectively confused about the policies and major issues facing the country and “doesn’t take debate preparation seriously.”
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“They deal with these issues in a much deeper way than they did as candidates, more so than they did as president,” O’Donnell said. “So, I think they confuse knowing the issues with being able to perform in a presidential debate.
“I call it the trap of the current government, and it actually goes back even further than that because Carter’s first debate with Reagan was a disaster. So, these people – the people of the current government – it seems … they forget the importance of performance because they need to know the issues.”
O’Donnell argued that although he does not like to see one side benefiting from another, he believes Republicans have a “better message”, and that this makes it easier to connect with Americans.
President George W. Bush (right) delivers a speech on stage while Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator John Kerry smiles during their first debate at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, September 30, 2004. (David Hume Kennerley/Getty Images)
“It’s the message of the American dream, where if you work hard, play by the rules, there are opportunities in this country that you can take advantage of,” O’Donnell said. “The answer from Democrats has always been government, and I don’t think that’s a particularly effective message for the general public.
“It might be for certain segments of the audience, but it’s not for the American public in general. They want to believe in the American dream, and Republicans have been defending that for decades.”
As O’Donnell noted, some incumbent presidents have failed to perform well in their first debates and ultimately failed to defeat their opponents, and have failed to win re-election, starting with President Carter.
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Fox News Digital reached out to several Democratic strategists, but none responded before publication.
