"If Donald Trump remains calms and collected, the Biden campaign has got problems"
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — While many of Joe Biden’s strategists have been pushing him to relitigate all of the Democrat's favorite talkiing points about Donald Trump's past and his presidency – and to continue to argue that Mr. Trump is "a threat to our democracy" – some of the party’s wisest voices have been warning that could fail.
“Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have to make this debate not about themselves, but about the American people, the future, and the other guy,” warned David Axelrod, the architect of Barack Obama’s presidential wins.
Axelrod told CNN recently that Biden should not relitigate old history, but rather try to assure the concerned American Voter that he understands their plight and discomfort.
"If he plays the debate for history instead of for votes, it stalls his own accomplishments – which I think are substantial. But that's not where the minds of the voters are right now. They're thinking about their own situation and thinking about the future. He needs to recognize that," Axelrod said.
- READ MORE: Here's What Left-Wing Groups are Advising Biden to say During Thursday's Debate
- One memo to "Interested Parties" on "How President Biden Can Win the Debate on Immigration" advises Biden to “embrace it, don’t run away from it.” Another entitled "5 Recommendations for Creating 'Moments' in the First 2024 Presidential Debate," advises Biden to talk about his "economic positions & proposals as much as possible."
Key Republicans, meanwhile, predict that Donald Trump will win the debate if he stays calm, engages with the voters watching, and focuses on the issues – no matter how baiting or derogatory the CNN host's questions may be.
"If Donald Trump remains calms and collected, the Biden campaign has got problems," noted former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg recently.
And CNN needs to avoid allowing the debate to slip into past recriminations, rather than keeping the focus on the issues that define the future. They will also need to avoid the mistake of being drawn into "fact-checking" the debaters statements in real time like prior hosts.
A top CNN executive recently promised that this is top of mind for the cable news network's moderators – i.e., moderate, and do not become part of the debate.
When Joe Biden and Donald Trump return to the debate arena this evening for the first time in 43 months, they will be greeted by a wary, concerned, and even angy American electorate that is hungry for answers – and that means answers about the the future, not the past.
Financially pinched and struggling voters are thirsting for solutions, and will be scutinizing both Turmp's & Biden's words – as well as their "mental acuity" and presentations for answers.
Whichever candidat talks most concisely, directlly and optomistically about what the American people care about, their and their children's futures, will likely be seen as the winner of the debate.
But issues of the past will surely be raised by CNN's questioners, including:
- the 2022 Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and return abortion legality to the states.
- the controversial House Democrat-led January 6th Committee's effort to blame Trump for the Capitol riot – and their subsequent deleting of most the the committee's official documents and permanent evidence.
- Past claims that the 2020 Election was stolen.
Voters will want to hear from both Biden and Trump what both their near-term and long-term solutions are for what they see ailing the country right now:
- Inflation, the economy, and job security in the face of record-high prices
- Escalating levels of violent crime being committed by illegal immigrants
- Energy poverty
- and a border so insecure from malicious terrorists and foreign gang members that even Biden's FBI says are at "Red Flag" levels of threat.
They want to stop the needless bloodshed that erased young and promising lives like those of 22-year-old Laken Riley in Georgia or 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas at the hands of murderous and unlawful migrants.
They want to be assured they won’t have to choose in the future between groceries for the kitchen table or gas for the car, or be forced to lower the heat to 62 degrees next winter to keep the utility bills affordable.
They don’t want personal recriminations for episodes of the past:
- impeachment or convictions
- the reversal of Roe v. Wade
- the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, or even
- Hunter Biden’s laptop and scandalous influence-peddling escapades
They have already come to grips with these issues – or are tired of hearing a re-hashing of them – and have processed and segregated them in a memory bank of the past.- READ MORE: Donald Trump Gets Surprising Boost From Independents
- A greater number of "Independents" in Key Swing States say they're now more likely to vote for Donald Trump, than those who'll vote against him, poll shows.
America’s voters want to know which candidate best understands the real-life issues currently scaring them, hurting them and their families, and frustrating them as they go to sleep each night.
Whichever candidate can best articulate their hopeful ideas to make America strong again, and concisely enunciates their plans to lead the country there, has the best chance of being said to have "Won the Debate."
A year's worth of polls now document how voters concerns are long-seeded, how they are exceedingly real and at a possible breaking point, and why their fears that this great country is headed in the wrong direction could possibly even be careening toward an abyss of no return.
CNN’s moderators, Mr. Biden, and Mr. Trump and their campaigns should take note – or risk the lasting repercussions.
