Elderly factor damaged Biden’s attacking approach in debate

When US President Joe Biden lost last Thursday’s televised debate with rival Donald Trump age was touted as the causal factor. Biden is elderly 81 while Trump is a senior citizen of 78. At the outset of the 90-minute exchange, Biden was limp, listless, unfocused; Trump was energetic, snappish, and focused. Biden stumbled; Trump held firm. Even when he rallied, Biden failed to lay claim to achievements of his administration or challenge Trump on 30 lies, false-hoods, and misrepresentations he uttered. Trump got away with a spate of untruths.

An IPSOS poll conducted following the debate reported 60 per cent of watchers said liar Trump won while only 21 per cent said feeble Biden performed better. IPSOS also revealed how respondents intended to vote for each before and after the debate. Biden’s share fell from 48.2 per cent to 46.7 per cent while Trump went from 43.5 per cent to 43.9 per cent.

As Republicans celebrated Trump’s triumph, Democrats despaired. Some urged Biden to step aside in favour of a younger candidate. A number of names were put forward. However, 18 hours after Biden’s flop, he rallied and put on a dramatic performance at a campaign rally in North Carolina.  There he condemned Trump’s record in the White House and repeatedly warned as he has done for months that a second Trump term would pose a danger to “America’s democracy.”

Biden’s rally performance created a quandary for Democrats. While he demonstrated that he has no intention of standing down, some worry that he is not physically and mentally reliable. He cannot be counted on to perform credibly at every stage of the campaign or in office if he wins re-election. They do not seem to realise that there are two Joe Bidens campaigning for re-election. There is the elderly, faltering, foggy Biden of June 27th and the aggressive, clear minded octogenarian of June 28th.  No one knows who will turn up at a public meeting. In the privacy of the White House, staff and family member manage to keep secret the fact that there are two Bidens in the race. A second Biden four-year term will be even more difficult to manage as the energy of the octogenarian is clearly flagging.

Democrats and some Republicans know that a second term for Trump is likely to be a disaster on both domestic and foreign levels. Trump has vowed to undo most of Biden’s efforts to tackle the causes of climate change, expand medical care, deepen US relations with NATO and , and counter Russia and China.

Trump is expected to surround himself with like-minded advisors and appoint officials who adhere to his ideas.  This would leave an unbridled Trump to do his worst.  In the initial months of his first administration, there were “adults” in his entourage who could restrain him.

Democrats also know that both Bidens are very stubborn.  This is why they will carry on regardless even if polls show they face defeat in the election. While the president could very well win the popular vote as he did in 2020, he could lose the Electoral College vote.  Trump is now leading the polls in five of six of the swing states which could give Trump the majority in the undemocratic Electoral College vote making him a “minority president.”

Trump was a disaster for this region. Trump began by imposing a ban on the entry to the US of citizens of Muslim countries.  Trump recognised occupied East Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy to the city. Trump dismissed the two-state solution for the emergence of a Palestinian  state alongside Israel, and proposed economic development in the West Bank and Gaza without out a political horizon for Palestinians.  Trump cut funding to UNRWA, the UN agency carrying for 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in the region.  He closed the US consulate in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority’s mission in Washington. Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. This prompted Iran to eventually breach its commitments under the deal and amass uranium enriched to 60 per cent purity, approaching the 90 per cent needed for bombs.

Biden followed Trump’s example on most of his regional initiatives. Biden went along with Trump’s Jerusalem policy and gave lip service to the two-state solution but did nothing to advance it or provide funds for Palestinians betterment. Biden partly restored the US contribution to UNRWA but did not reopen the East Jerusalem consulate or the Palestinian mission in Washington. Biden did not re-enter the Iran nuclear deal.

During their debate on the 27th, Trump said if he were in office he would have let Israel to “finish the job” in Gaza where it had already killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and turned the strip into a wasteland. Trump also criticised Biden for calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and dubbed him a “bad Palestinian” because he was too weak to achieve a halt to Israel’s offensive.

Proud to profess Zionism, stubborn Biden has staunchly backed Israel in its deadly and devastating war on Gaza, repeatedly refused to demand a ceasefire, or use US leverage to compel Israel to allow food, water and medicine into Gaza. Biden has provided Israel with at least 14,000 of MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 small-diameter bombs, and other munitions since last October. Biden has also dismissed global and US domestic criticism of the Gaza war and granted full US support for Israel’s disproportionate onslaught on Gaza.

Whoever wins the White House, the Palestinian situation will be bleak. Both Biden and Trump say Israel has the “right to defend itself” against Palestinians resisting Israeli occupation.  Neither recognises that Israel is waging offensive warfare against Palestinians in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank to compel capitulation to forever Israeli occupation, expropriation, and insecurity and denying them human rights and a national home.