New York Daily News: "How Biden Wins Tonight's Debate"
Op-Ed by Will Marshall, PPI President
Joe Biden’s job in tonight’s debate is actually very simple. It is to constantly remind viewers that Donald Trump isn’t what he claims to be, a radical outsider challenging a corrupt status quo. Trump is the swampy status quo in Washington. He’s an incumbent with a record to defend — and it’s indefensible.
As Bill Clinton likes to say, a presidential campaign is basically a job interview with the American people. Based solely on Trump’s job performance, voters should throw his own tagline back at him: “You’re fired.”
Trump excels at self-promotion, not producing actual results. The glimpse America has gotten at his tax records confirms that he is a clever tax evader (so far) and a lousy businessman. He loses more money than he makes and most of his branding ventures go belly up. Where are the Trump Steaks of yesterday?
But it doesn’t really matter, because Trump’s businesses are simply a means to an end: the glorification of Donald Trump. They provide a platform for Trump to impersonate a business tycoon. The fancy hotels and golf resorts, the now-bankrupt casinos and beauty pageants, the Playmates and private jets — it’s all for show.
Trump’s perverse genius lies in fabricating a loser’s idea of a winner. It’s no accident that his only recent money-maker was playing a capitalist buccaneer on TV.
Now the Trump Show has moved to Washington, where Trump is pretending to be president of the United States. Just as he lacks the patience and skill to effectively manage a business, he has zero interest in the details of governing. What’s his second-term agenda? The further feeding of Trump’s monstrous ego.
How do you debate a carnival barker who hogs the spotlight with a volcanic cascade of lies, abuse, bigotry and wild conspiracy theories? You don’t.
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