Trump failed to stop biden in their last tv debate. What now for america? | thearticle

Donald Trump strode into the Last Chance Saloon last night for a showdown with Joe Biden. But both gunslingers ended up firing blanks. They were more courteous and there was more substance

to their confrontation, to be sure. Still, there was no memorable moment, no “zinger” remark that hit home — and certainly no decisive victory for either man. Yet the fact that the last TV

debate of the campaign ended in a draw means that Trump’s attempt to halt the Biden juggernaut has failed. He has shot his bolt. The Democrat has financially outgunned and tactically

outmanoeuvred the Republican throughout. The President has never seriously tried to capitalise on his genuine achievements: his Middle East peace accords, his stewardship of the economy, his

refusal to be drawn into foreign intervention. Nor did he make the most of Biden’s threat, since denied, to “replace” the oil industry and eliminate fracking — which could potentially

destroy millions of jobs. Instead, he launched into ever more obscure conspiracy theories designed to implicate Biden in his son’s Hunter’s business affairs. Trump refuses to accept that it

is too late to blacken his opponent in this way — especially as neither the FBI nor his own Attorney General have been willing to back up his wilder claims. Whatever the truth may be about

Biden Junior’s deals in Ukraine or China, there is no sign that they are hurting “the big man”. Unlike his partially successful character assassination of “Crooked Hillary”, with its

notorious threats to “lock her up”, Trump’s barrage against Biden is just a smokescreen. Enough voters disliked Mrs Clinton for other reasons to lend plausibility to Trump’s speculation

about the contents of her emails. But Uncle Joe is just not a divisive figure in the same way. All presidential elections come down to character in the end. With Biden, who has been a

familiar figure inside the Beltway since before most Americans were born, what you see is what you get. A career politician? Absolutely. A man of average abilities and limited achievement?

Probably. A wolf in sheep’s clothing? Almost certainly not. By refusing to let go of his attempt to make Biden’s honesty the main issue, Trump has missed not one but several tricks. He could

have pounced on the former Vice President’s promise to “reform” the Supreme Court. To claim, as Biden does, that the Court is “out of whack” because he doesn’t like its political

complexion, may play well with his base. But to middle-of-the-road voters, this could be made to sound like a threat to the independence of the judiciary — and hence to the Constitution.

Unless Biden wins a majority in the Senate as well as the White House, he won’t be able to “pack” the Court, even if he wants to. But Trump’s campaign has been so bad that he may drag his

party down with him. If the polls are right, it’s looking like a Democratic landslide. As for Biden’s own performance in the debate: all that matters is that he avoided disaster. And, apart

from one minor gaffe (he referred to “the Poor Boys” when he meant the Proud Boys), Uncle Joe did pretty well for a man of nearly 78. He hardly needed to remind his compatriots of Trump’s

flaws and failures: the mainstream media, including even Fox News, does that for him all the time. The second wave of Covid-19 alone would be enough to overwhelm this least seaworthy of

administrations. To Trump’s claim that “we can’t lock ourselves in the basement like Joe does”, Biden replied with his best line of the evening: “He says that we’re learning to live with it

— people are learning to die with it… I am going to shut down the virus, not the country.” However much Trump flails about, his presidency is holed below the waterline — and he knows it.

Donald Trump’s epitaph might echo Shakespeare: he held a mirror up, not to nature, but to America. In this President, the nation that once gave birth to Abraham Lincoln — who called it “the

last best hope of earth” — has been forced to face up to what it has become. In last night’s debate, Trump dared to compare himself to the greatest President of all, claiming that he had

done more for black Americans than any of his predecessors “with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln”. Biden seized his opportunity to poke fun at “Abraham Lincoln here”, reminding

viewers of the vanity and bombast that has emanated from the White House for the past four years. Yet Trump has merely been a reflection of the people who elected him: a distorted,

exaggerated image maybe, but hardly an alien from outer space. Trump may be an exception to every rule, but he is also everyman. In Trump, America confronts its own selfie. If it doesn’t

like what it sees, it now has no choice but to take a huge risk. For Uncle Joe is not as avuncular as he seems. The coming Democratic administration will be a radical one — more revolution

than restoration. Next time Americans look into the mirror, they may no longer recognise themselves.