In the moment reaction from debate watchers and now after a day of reflection, expert
analysis on performance and the stakes, UW Milwaukee professor emeritus political scientist
Mordecai Lee joins us and thanks a lot for being here Mordecai.
So glad to be here. Thank you.
So what was your first reaction when Joe Biden started speaking?
I didn't understand why he was speaking so softly and he was mumbling and he sort of
wasn't finishing sentences. I initially thought that maybe this was some impact of the fact
that he's been a stutterer all his life and all his life he's had to overcome stuttering
and I thought well maybe that's it but as the hour and a half rolled on it really didn't change.
Does this go down as much more than a missed opportunity for Joe Biden?
Well I think the debate was a train wreck for both of them because you had Trump blustering
and you had Biden mumbling and for those of us who care about the substance of government
we sort of walked out of there like it's a soccer match that was zero zero nobody scored.
Trump was sort of fat free and Biden was fat heavy so I think it was a huge missed opportunity
for both candidates because for Biden I think the score for him is pretty obvious.
For Trump I think the negative was that while he had really good presence and a good voice
and real confidence he really projected but he had two or three sound bites and punch lines
the kept repeating through the entire hour and a half it was about immigration it was about the
border it was about the economy and so we heard those lines again and again and I was really
surprised for example when there was a question about a specific public policy the opioid crisis
or maybe child care costs he really didn't have any material and then in the closing statements
when you really expect both candidates to knock it out of the park because generally speaking
they're prepared for a closing statement they've memorized it they've repeated it several times
in rehearsal neither of them seem to have any game they were just sort of repeating accusations
against each other in criticisms it was a major disappointment it seems to me in terms of the
benefit to the viewers. So Donald Trump packed so many things including as you've said false
hoods and to each response and then often non-responses to the question it's like it left Biden
spinning but but shouldn't Joe Biden with all his people have been prepared for that kind of thing?
I'm really surprised you know there's a certain role of political debates that the incumbent
always does poorly in the first round Baldwin did poorly six years ago Ronald Reagan did poorly
against Mondale maybe it's the fact that when you're the incumbent you just don't have quite as much
sort of interaction and high speed input and then statement so maybe Biden would be better
second time around but still he was trying to say so many facts and he trailed off so many times
or when he'd say well first of all and then second of all it really didn't cohere
he had a lot to say but he really never packaged it for the audience.
Do you feel as though Joe Biden candidate Joe Biden can recover from this?
Well that's what every American is thinking today and over the next week you know it's possible
that this was fatal it's possible that he can't recover from it and that the image that he set
to the American people yesterday could never be changed over the next five months and it's possible
and it's possible that he'll reflect on it and wonder if he should continue I imagine that he
really really wants to continue and is going to have to somehow negate the impression that he left
in other words he's going to have to do a lot of town hall meetings where it's back and forth
with the questioners he's going to have to do a lot of press conferences where it's back and forth
with challenging questions. He really has to show that he's got it and if we're going to end up
voting on these two candidates I suspect that there are some Wisconsin voters last night about
10% of the voters are still authentically undecided. I think some of them might have turned off the
TV and discussed and said I'm sitting this one out or I'm voting for a third party candidate
because they both were not presenting a positive image of what they want to do over the next four
years. So this was a minus minus event. What happens if Joe Biden did step aside as some even
Democrats are now suggesting? I mean what happens then? What happens then is you have a wide open
convention. We have to remember that most of the delegates who are committed to voting for Biden
are bound by the state law of their particular state and the different state laws have these
different extenuating circumstances and in some cases might force them legally to keep staying with
Biden because that's who they were even after he's no longer a candidate but I suspect that if he were
to withdraw you'd have a wide open convention and that you'd have a couple of governors who have
been in waiting for the last three years who are going to jump in and then it's going to be a
delegate hunting a one by one trying to persuade these former delegates to vote for them. We'll see
what happens. Mordecai Lee thank you very much. You're welcome.
I could talk to you about this for like the next hour but yeah it's so depressing. Yeah oh
Marisa wanted me to ask a pickup question. He did speak to Wisconsin voters when he talked about
watching it last night and turning it off and deciding not to vote. What did you want to ask?
Marisa wonders did you hear anything in the debate last night that would have resonated one
way or the other with Wisconsin voters? I didn't hear anything last night that would resonate with
Wisconsin voters because they were always talking in generalities. They were never really talking
about the issues that would be of concern to the half dozen states that are in play including
Wisconsin. So I think that was a letdown. You would normally expect in a debate that there'd be a
couple of throwaway lines where they're sort of subtly addressing Pennsylvanians, Michiganians,
Wisconsinites, but neither of them really did that. Okay great thank you. Yeah boy well yes they
could not find their way to something that specific. All right thank you Mordecai. We'll call you
we'll call you next time. Not four years from now. Yeah you too. Take care. Bye.