Folks keep asking me if I'm going to watch the Presidential Debate on Thursday evening. This is assuming it happens as planned. My answer? I dunno. I'm not sure I can watch Donald Trump for that long in one sitting.
Everyone discussing this online is talking about raising or lowering expectations. My expectation is that neither man will fare so poorly that his boosters can't declare him the obvious winner by a million-billion miles. This whole thing about "performance-enhancing drugs" is another Trump alibi/distraction. There's zero evidence that Biden gets a shot in his incumbent butt before any major address but if you're really invested in the premise that he can barely walk or talk, I guess you have to come up with some explanation when he actually walks or talks.
And of course, the back-up excuse if Trump doesn't do well will be Jake Tapper. Trump dwells in a world of "Heads, I win…tails, it's rigged!"
Me, I think it's way too early for this. Neither man officially has his nomination yet. One hasn't even named his running mate. The polls don't mean much this far ahead of Election Day but even if they did, they've been essentially tied for some time…as anyone who understands the term "margin of error" knows.
Assuming these are the two guys on the ballots in November, I think Biden's going to win because Trump's reminding me more and more of a crook being pursued in a high-speed chase but whose car is coming apart, piece by piece. It's inevitable that he's going to crash but I don't think this debate will be the spike-strip that does it. I think it'll just further polarize a battle that has already become too polarized for the issues to matter as much as they should.