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GOP
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The Washington Post has contacted eight of the people who prepped Joe Biden for the debate and wrote a story about the prep. Short summary: Boy, were they surprised with how it went. Our take: Given the prep, we are not surprised.
For a full week, Biden was sequestered at Camp David, 55 miles northwest of the White House in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. At least 18 aides pumped information into him on all topics they thought might come up. He also did mock debates with his personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, standing in for Donald Trump, at all hours of the day and night in a mock studio they built in an airplane hangar. He rehearsed his answers over and over and wrote some of them on index cards. The whole exercise was focused on loading him up with as much information as possible.
He's 81 and the whole thing just overwhelmed him. The aides should have known that Biden was going to be judged on whether he seemed alert and in command. He wasn't going to be judged on whether he knew exactly how many immigrants crossed the border illegally every day or how many abortions were done in the third trimester nationally last year. There appeared to be no prep at all on how to attack Trump as a disgusting person who cares only about himself. There should have been. The prep seems to have been oriented around not making some factual error that the Post could pick apart the next day. It should have focused on looking sharp and in control. Voters don't care about the facts. Also, with so many people helping with prep, there were contradictions among the staffers and this probably confused Biden. It was just too much for an old guy to handle.
There were also disagreements among the staffers about whether Biden should even do the debate. Some thought he had to in order to dispel the notion that he was old and feeble. Others thought the risk was too great. There was also disagreement about the rules. Some aides wanted no studio audience but others wanted one because they thought Trump would then play to the groundlings and look like a fool to viewers at home. There was also disagreement about the date. Some wanted it early to stop the bleeding but it had the opposite effect, with calls for him to withdraw. Others were afraid he might botch it.
All in all, the focus of the prep was all wrong. It shouldn't have been learning as many facts as possible. It should have been about looking in command and getting under Trump's skin to get him to make an unforced error. Suppose Biden replied to a question about abortion by asking Trump: "How come you are against abortion considering how many women have said you raped them?" That would have done three things. First, remind people that Trump is against abortion. Second remind them that many women have accused him of rape. Third, Trump would have exploded and probably said something dumb. Is that dirty pool? A bit, but no worse than Trump's stream of lies. All in all, the prep would have been fine for someone on the Harvard debating team, but Biden's opponent wasn't on the Yale debating team. (V)