There was plenty of news in Thursday night's mud fight between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
It was the earliest presidential debate in history. The first between two candidates of such mature age. The only one who has ever pitted the occupant of the Oval Office against the man he overthrew.
But for anyone who has paid even a passing attention to politics over the past four grumpy years, the spite-filled session in Atlanta had the familiar, unhappy feel of a nagging wound.
The grandiloquence. The insults. The obvious and abundant contempt between two men who did not even dare to shake hands.
“You have the morals of a stray cat,” Biden told the former president.
“We are a nation that is seriously failing,” Trump said of the current president, “and we are failing because of him.”
There are train disasters that offer more inspiration and elevation.
It was Biden, who was flagging in the polls and looking to energize his campaign, who issued the debate challenge, bringing the two rivals to an unusually early summer stage.
It can be considered one of the great political miscalculations of modern times.
Though he recovered in the second half of the show, Biden’s performance did nothing to allay concerns about his physical condition at age 81, which arguably poses the biggest threat to his chance at a second term. If anything, the president compounded those doubts.
Biden seemed distressed when he didn't seem empty or lost. He sometimes seemed to hold on to the lectern as if he would fall if he let go. His complexion was waxy. His papery voice became silent or incoherent.
“I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence,” Trump said mockingly. “I don't think he knows what he said either.”
Presidents often appear unprepared in their first debates and lose their combative ability after four years of pampering in the White House. Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama stumbled in their first return to the debate stage.
But neither performed as poorly as Biden, whose wan presentation took away much of the sting (“I’ve never heard so much nonsense,” “You have no idea what the hell you’re talking about”) of their attacks.
The facts may have been on Biden’s side. The American economy, inflation aside, is the envy of the world. He has done more than any president in history to address the crisis posed by climate change. He has assembled an international coalition to counter Russia’s dangerous hegemonic designs.
But those words were lost amid Biden's flowery responses and halting verbal exchanges.
Trump, for his part, lied and exaggerated with characteristic abandon.
He blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that he provoked. He claimed to have presided over the greatest economic performance in U.S. history. He claimed that millions of people entering the country illegally are not only enrolled in Social Security and Medicare programs but are also living in luxury hotels at government expense.
He wrongly claimed that Biden engineered his serial criminal charges and continued to push unfair claims that undermined the integrity of the 2020 election he lost — the big lie that is eroding our democracy.
Fact-checkers immediately went into overdrive, but over the years they have proven no match for Trump’s rat pack of falsehoods. Give him his due: he may spew endless lies, but Trump does so unabashedly and with powerful certainty.
The overwhelming majority of Americans may be stuck with their preferences by November, leaving a relatively small number open to persuasion. That said, those voters could make a difference if the election is close, as polls suggest.
Perhaps they learned something new Thursday night. (Trump never explained his claim that Biden is a sleeper agent bought and paid for by the Chinese government. That seemed to come from the left.)
For many, the 90-plus minutes likely reaffirmed what they thought at the start of the session in CNN’s Atlanta studio. Biden haters saw a debilitated geriatric with only fleeting moments of lucidity. (Even some Biden supporters would agree with that assessment.) Trump critics saw an authoritarian and congenitally lying ogre.
Those who do not sympathize with either candidate may even more want a viable alternative not named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., serving up his magic concoction of conspiracy theories, or some other third-party candidate with no chance of winning.
It will be at least several days before the impact of Thursday night's confrontation is known. Snap polls do little more than record gut reactions. Opinions may change after voters have time to digest the voluminous content, listen to the post-debate analysis and watch the highlight reels on television and viral videos bouncing around social media.
But after Biden's dismal performance, nervousness among Democrats is likely to turn into full-blown panic, with renewed talk of replacing the president before the Democratic convention in August.
And given the president's face, we may have just witnessed the last debate of the 2024 presidential campaign, with Biden's strategists finding some excuse to back out of a follow-up scheduled for September.
Considering the spectacle that occurred Thursday night — “Moron!”, “Loser!” — that cancellation might not be such a bad thing.
