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Is Joe Biden's candidacy salvageable after the June 28 debate? That is the question.
During the recent Trump/Biden debate, Joe Biden needed to convince undecideds about whether he was too old to be president. He failed abysmally and probably irrecoverably.
He not only lost the undecideds, he also lost the confidence of many Democrats who are saying they now think he cannot win re-election.
With so many undecideds now thinking he should not be president and so many Democrats who think he cannot win in November, it is much harder the day after the debate than the day before to see how Joe Biden can keep Trump from being re-elected.
Will Joe Biden come to see things that way? And if he does not, will he get the full support of Democrats going forward? He will get mine, but only because I would prefer an occasionally bungling old man as president than a lying convicted felon running for dictator. I think Biden would still serve us well as president. But I now have doubts he can serve Democrats well enough as a winning candidate for the presidency.
Despite his episodic weaknesses as a communicator, if re-elected, I think Biden would remain a solid decision-maker with a strong supportive team, would repeat the success of his first term and leave us a strong nation domestically and internationally. Trump, on the other hand, would continue to lie every time he opens his mouth, violate the Constitution by doing whatever he wants, usher in a dictatorship and renew the chaos of his first term at home and abroad.
And now with the Supreme Court's decision, according to leading experts, Trump has guaranteed immunity to do almost everything he wants to do. The preeminent Republican Constitutional lawyer, J. Michael Luttig said this about the recent decision:, "SCOTUS cut the heart and soul out of America." Democratic Constitutional scholar, Harvard's Lawrence Tribe said:"For all practical purposes this decision amounts to absolute immunity."
And so we are left with this stark choice: A vote for Biden is a vote to keep our American Republic with its democratic freedoms. A vote for Trump is a vote to rescind the American Revolution and replace King George III with King Donald I.
Tim Mannello is a retired hospital system executive and business consultant.