To Debate or Not to Debate

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

As has become customary over the past several election cycles, it now looks as though voters and others in the United States and around the globe will be subjected to three "presidential" debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and one "vice presidential" debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence.  The presidential debates are scheduled for September 29th (Cleveland, Ohio), October 15th (Miami, Florida), and October 22nd (Nashville, Tennessee).  The lone vice-presidential debate will be held on October 7th in Salt Lake City, Utah.  

It is technically possible that more than two candidates could qualify for any of the debates, although this year there are no apparent strong third-party candidates who appear to be within reach of meeting the criteria.  In order to qualify for the debates a candidate must:

• Be constitutionally eligible to hold the presidency;
• Appear on a sufficient number of ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority of the vote in the Electoral College;  and,
• Have a level of support of at least 15% of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recently reported results at the time of determination.

The official schedule for this year's debate was announced in October of 2019 by the "Commission on Presidential Debates."  Biden campaign officials confirmed in June (well before they had the Democratic nomination in-hand) that they had agreed to the schedule.  

Trump's people said that their candidate wanted debates but had concerns about whether they should be under the auspices of the commission or not.  (Trump used the 2016 debates to take cheap shots at his opponent - such as calling her "such a nasty woman" in one of the debates, and then later he had complained that the debates had been "biased" against him.).   Trump finally agreed to this year's debates being sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, but he asked that the schedule be moved up so that a fourth presidential debate could be added.  The Biden campaign and the commission each rejected that request.

As the situation now stands the first presidential debate will be held on Tuesday, September 29 - four weeks from yesterday evening.  But all may not be as copacetic as it would seem at first glance.  While Trump is clamoring for more debates because he sees himself as the underdog and feels a need for more chances to confront Biden face-to-face, many Democrats, on the other hand, see the debates as being an unnecessary risk for their candidate.  They note that Trump is chaotic, volatile, and mean-spirited - and will pull no punches in trying to embarrass their candidate on national television.  Not only do these cautious Democrats not want to expand the debate schedule, many are actually promoting the idea of Biden declining to debate Trump at all.

Last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urged Candidate Biden to skip all of the debates.  Pelosi and others see that strategy as a way to deny political oxygen and big audiences to the opponent and limit his opportunities to inflict damage on their candidate.

The debates may be a lose-lose proposition for Joe Biden.  If he decides at this late date to opt out of the process, Trump and his campaign will attack the Democratic nominee as being cowardly and secretive as to his agenda for America.  But if he goes ahead with the planned debates, Biden opens himself up to the possibility of misspeaking, making a gaffe that grabs headlines for several days, or being splattered with some of the manure that Trump will be madly slinging.

The best option would be for Joe Biden to step out onto the debate stage and stand tall, presidentially, in sharp contrast to Trump's snarling schoolyard bully persona.  But Trump, who doesn't read and has no command of actual facts, will not be on the stage to debate.  He will be there to ridicule, insult, and stir the emotions of his angry and racist base.  It would be hard for Biden - or anyone - to remain presidential standing next to someone like Trump.

So skipping the debates altogether would also be an understandable and acceptable option.

Of course, if Biden chooses not to debate Trump, that would give Mike Pence cover for skipping his pending humiliation by Kamala Harris on October 7th in Salt Lake City - and many of us would hate to miss that!