May I boldly submit that the great joint press conference between Biden and Trump, short of one or both collapsing on stage, will have no meaning? Even if one or both did collapse, short of death, I’m not sure that anything would change.
Almost everyone is sick of this political sideshow, and we aren’t yet formally in the campaign. So what will happen?
Biden will respond to the questions with carefully laid-out policy statements, while Trump will ramble, shout, and make accusations.
It is well understood by people who are involved in this that Trump has the most to lose. His mental condition and personality problems can trigger failure at any point. The fact that Biden goaded him into this format with no easy way to escape is somewhat interesting.
After the event, without physical collapse or Trump running amok, there will be endless discussions, and hundreds of thousands of words pounded down the national rat hole. All of it meaningless.
A few people on this fringe may question what color to repaint the deckchairs, but that cliche is so worn out that no one will listen.
To put this in simpler terms, while either Trump or Biden could hurt themselves, that isn’t likely, and only Biden could help himself. That help would come by remaining vertical and not being incoherent.
As many have said, Trump sets a very low bar for Biden.
If Trump remains vertical and does not go so far off the rails that no one can find him, he will survive and will have won in the minds of his cult followers. I do not think that will make any difference.
It appears to me that Trump’s day is over despite the desperate effort of the national media to make this a dead heat horserace. The reality of climate collapse with the growing dominance of China technologically and financially makes the American Empire a permanent holder of the also-ran trophy.
Politically, Biden is not a winner but not a loser; that is the best we can do.
Most people who have not lived under a rock for the last four years know how much has changed. Octogenarians have a difficult time not living in the past. Even Biden’s huge infrastructure investments are designed for a different era and depend on fossil fuels to work.
The Trumpist minority are racist authoritarians who desperately want to go to the past to enjoy the benefits they feel they have been denied. Their dreams are of the same era as Biden’s.
None of this will be relevant in five years and may not be relevant next year.
But we will see if anything surprising happens tonight.