Debate showed who is presidential
On the day after Richard Nixon narrowly won the presidency in 1968, he reflected on the meaning of his victory. He was most inspired, he said, by a homemade sign at a rally in Ohio. “Bring us together again,” it said.
Nixon promised unity would become “the great objective” of his administration. He made it the theme of his inauguration. For awhile, he considered forging a bipartisan consensus.
If so, it didn't last long. Nixon undid himself with his “southern strategy” and his “enemies list.” He would unite Americans, eventually, in their antipathy for him.
But here's the point: Nixon saw unity as a president's responsibility. He understood the instinct, even if he could not honour it.
On Thursday evening's debate, Joe Biden saw it too. He rejected Donald Trump's repeated references to the different impact of the pandemic in “red states and blue states.” He talked again about restoring “the soul of the nation” and why “character is on the ballot.” Given a minute at the end of the debate to offer his hopes for the country in 2021, he talked about being president of all Americans.
This comes naturally to Biden, whom Trump derided as a politician of “47 years.” When you're around Washington that long, though, you learn something. It makes Biden more institutionalist than disrupter, more torchbearer than flame-thrower. That's why he's uncertain about two changes Democrats will have to consider if they win: abolishing the filibuster in the Senate and enlarging the Supreme Court.
Biden offered a message of unity Thursday night, as if he were already president. And with unity, he offered empathy. In his best moment, he talked about the hundreds of children at the southern border taken from their parents. He lamented the consequences of the pandemic for families and the impact of racism. He never had to pretend.
Everyone knows Trump cares little for unity or empathy. His campaign — with its narrowing path to victory
— is the politics of division, not multiplication. This isn't news, but it's striking that he doesn't even try to fake it. It's called being “presidential” and it has eluded Trump, at great cost, his entire presidency.
In his final minute discussing what he would say to Americans next January, Trump promised a return to a great economy and then pivoted to personal grievance, his default position. We still don't know his plans for a second term.
True, Trump didn't interrupt Biden as often in the debate or insult the moderator. But again, he did little to expand his appeal beyond less-educated, white working-class men (other than flatulent boasts of what he's done for Blacks, making him a latter-day Lincoln). He made no attempt to close his yawning gender gap by appealing to women — who understand deeply the plight of kids taken from their parents — or to shore up support among seniors.
Sitting in his corner, he scowled, frowned, grimaced. But he has recently matured — he found his inside voice and used his grown-up words.
In the end, nothing changed in a race in which 48 million Americans have already voted. Biden stumbled, stuttered and recovered, as usual. He got off a good line or two, accusing a racist Trump of turning “a dog whistle into a foghorn.”
Most importantly, Biden did not collapse. He has survived — even triumphed — in this abbreviated debate season, which he could have skipped altogether.
Trump was crisper and sharper but no less relentless, revelling in his harvest festival of lies. We forget, hearing the unproven allegations about Biden's family, that this is the dirtiest campaign of the modern presidency.
Astonishingly for a president who has filled the swamp rather than drained it, Trump is running as an outsider. It is as if he is president in name only — unschooled in the duties of the presidency, ignorant of its grace notes, deaf to do what's necessary to win again.
It may be that calls for unity and empathy are passé today. Biden, who wants to be president, doesn't think so. Trump, who acted as if he isn't president, doesn't care.