Clarence Page | Presidential debate was a contest of blown opportunities

My wife was the first to go.

She stood up and made a beeline for bed after about 10 minutes.

Next to go was our millennial son. He lasted about 20 minutes before fleeing to the friendly confines of social media.

That left me, as usual, loyal to my sacred duty as a journo who, to paraphrase an old movie critic’s ad, suffers through the bad debates so that you, dear voters, don’t have to.

Who won the first and long-awaited presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden?

Usually I hate to be asked that question after a political campaign debate. Too many people have too many different ideas about what constitutes a “win.”

Nevertheless, my verdict as to who won this debate, which quickly degraded into a raucous debacle that made my family flee, seemed quite clear: The people did not.

But it was a happy night for the Proud Boys.

Yes, as the world now knows, that far-right ragtag group, labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League as a hate group that endorses violence, came up when Trump and Biden were asked if they were willing to condemn white supremacists and paramilitary groups.

“Give me a name. Give me a name,” Trump said. Biden mentioned the Proud Boys. Instead of a straightforward repudiation, Trump curiously barked toward the cameras, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”

Then he quickly added, “But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.

Biden condemned violence and hate groups on the right and left. But Trump’s waffling about the Proud Boys sparked more headlines and social media chatter, along with a huge surge in Google searches. Before midnight, a new pseudo-military Proud Boys logo appeared online featuring “Stand Back, Stand By” like a new warriors’ slogan.

Yet Jason Miller, a senior Trump campaign adviser, said it was “very clear he wants them to knock it off.” To him, maybe. Most people, including me, seemed to hear quite the opposite coming from the president’s mouth.

That includes the Boys themselves who, judging by their web traffic, felt quite a bit prouder to be name-checked by the prez himself.

By Wednesday, Trump tried to walk it back, saying the Proud Boys should “stand down” and “let law enforcement do their work.”

All in a night’s work for a president who spent the evening in full Captain Chaos mode. He constantly interrupted Biden, ignored time limits, digressed away from the point of questions and talked over attempts by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News to impose order.

In short, it was an evening of blown opportunities.

After weeks of remarkable stability in the polls showing Biden clearly ahead nationally, although by tighter margins in the battleground states, it was one of the last big opportunities before November for both candidates to make their closing arguments.

For Biden, this was an opportunity to shore up his lead, which remains soft enough among the relatively few remaining persuadable voters to make his stronger supporters nervous.

He needed to show that, contrary to the Grand Old Party’s mythology, the former vice president is not too old to handle a 90-minute debate without collapsing into a babbling buffoon.

Instead, his confidence began to visibly firm up after he began to break the usual norms of civility by telling his yammering opponent to simply “Shut up!”

Trump should have listened. He needed this night more than Biden did. He wasn’t speaking to an arena full of his loyal Trumpists. Instead, this was his chance to broaden his appeal to the persuadables who haven’t yet made up their minds. He offered little to reassure them — and a lot with which to insult their intelligence.

Instead he sounded like a junior high school kid who hadn’t done his homework but still thinks he can BS his way through an oral exam. He even lapsed, as he has before, into blaming Biden for problems of crime, violence and the COVID-19 pandemic as if somebody besides Trump has been president for the past nearly four years.

In the end, the biggest question of the evening seemed not to be about the pandemic or antifa but whether there’s any hope for the remaining two scheduled presidential debates. I have considered numerous suggestions for improvement, including a large gavel for the moderator, a referee’s whistle and isolation booths to silence the long-winded.

However they may be conducted, I believe debates do us more good than harm. When candidates abuse the privilege, that’s on them.

As noted historian Jon Meacham observed in a post-debate panel, “It’s not just the candidates on the ballot, we are.” Indeed, we are. Our Election Day choices are a reflection of all of us. We need to be informed, not driven to the exits.