The last presidential debate of this chaotic election cycle was a much-needed win for President Donald Trump, who displayed a much greater level of discipline this time around. On the other side of the debate stage, former Vice President Joe Biden sang sloppy, off-key renditions of dated campaign speeches of former President Barack Obama. But that could be enough for nostalgic Democrats willing to cringe their way to the ballot-box.

While markedly more lively than his vice presidential counterpart, Trump seemed to have learned a couple of lessons from Mike Pence’s polished debate performance two weeks ago. The president eased off the mic at times and applied the pressure when needed. As a result, Trump’s jabs at Biden’s record, alleged corruption and policy reversals landed with far more precision and impact than they did with his jackhammer approach in the last debate.

“How come you didn’t get it done before?” became Trump’s main line of attack for the night, to which Biden had little in the way of a comeback. That was particularly noticeable during the exchange on police reform. When asked to defend his support of the 1994 crime bill, Biden ended up apologizing for his record of being harsh on crime.

Trump also shifted his wording on the issue of Biden’s son Hunter Biden taking money from foreign entities. Last debate, Trump focused on Hunter’s moral character, which painted the president as a bully. In this debate, his messaging centered more on the “Biden family,” framing the former vice president as the head of the implied corruption scheme in a wiser political move.

In perhaps Trump’s most electorally-significant moment of the night, he successfully questioned Biden into a corner on the issue of fracking and oil, leading Biden to promise he would “not rule out fracking” but also “transition away from the oil industry.” That sort of wishy-washiness could dampen enthusiasm on Biden’s far left side and weaken Biden’s lead in key, oil-producing states.

That’s not to say Biden’s night was without its moments. He stuck to his compelling “You know me. You know him,” message, and when it came to COVID-19 and race, Biden got some base-rallying licks in. Pining 220,000 COVID-19 deaths on the president and mockingly stating “Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history,” is the sort of rhetoric that offers Democratic debate viewers a chance to vicariously live out their dreams of sticking it to the president.

Biden also seemed more fired-up than he did during last month’s debate, but that didn’t stop him from having missteps. Despite reciting Obama’s classic “there are no red states, no blue states, just the United States,” line, Biden oddly proceeded to praise the pandemic response of blue states and point his finger at “the states that are having such a spike in the coronavirus. They’re the red states.” It’s clear that the Biden campaign is an off-Broadway recasting of a better production.

Cesar Gray is a senior political science and government major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at cfgray@syr.edu.

Published on October 23, 2020 at 3:41 pm