CHRIS CRUCIAL: Why it's not *just* a debate

PLUS: The REAL question Democrats should ask.

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I am on a plane — with spotty wifi — back from the West Coast today. So, tonight’s newsletter is a little shorter than usual. Back to normal tomorrow! And a special welcome to all the new subscribers we’ve added over the past few days!

1. On the presidency — and persuasion

One of the most common responses to Joe Biden’s debate performance I have heard from Democrats over the last few days goes something like this: Ok, he’s not a good debater! But he’s a GREAT president!

Biden himself has trotted out this line of logic to defend staying in the race following his debate disaster. “I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said at a rally in North Carolina on Friday. “[But] I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”

The thinking behind this excuse reasoning goes like this: Sure, Biden was bad in the debate. But that doesn’t matter because a president never has to debate to do the job. It’s all about negotiating with Congress and world leaders in private! Being a good debater in a public setting is meaningless.

The problem with thinking that way is simple: It overlooks the fact that the modern presidency is built around performance and persuasion. If a president lacks the ability to do those things, he will struggle to be effective.

That reality is most effectively summed up by the late (and great) presidential historian Richard Neustadt who wrote in his 1960 book “Presidential Power” that “presidential power is the power to persuade.”

Neustadt’s point was that because presidential power was significantly circumscribed by the Constitution, a president’s real sway lies in his ability to convince people — lawmakers, the public, the media —that his way is the right way.

Inherent in that observation is that most politicians are reactive creatures — trying to channel the wants and whims of their voters so as to to make their reelections more likely.

For Biden to succeed in a 2nd term then, you have to believe that he has the ability to use the public power of the presidency to push his preferred agenda to passage.

And there is simply no way you can draw that conclusion — in any sort of convincing way — after what we saw on Thursday. Biden was barely able to put sentences together at times, much less show voters — especially undecided ones — why their concerns about his age and competence were overblown and irrelevant.

What was clear from the debate is that those concerns might have actually undersold Biden’s current competence. And they begged the question: If Biden performed like that in a debate in which he and his advisers knew how high the stakes were, how can they guarantee that in ANY setting going forward he is a sure thing to be lucid and effective?

Right? Right.

Before I end, I wanted to make one other tangentially related point: People keep sending me notes about how it’s ok if Biden isn’t all there anymore because he still has great staff around him.

This is a) deeply insulting to Biden and b) extremely worrisome. It’s the president, not the president’s senior staff who are required to do the hard work of persuasion and performance — whether in private or public settings. The presidency is not, ultimately, something that can be run by staff — no matter how smart and capable that staff is.

2. The real question Democrats need to be asking about Biden

I made a video for my YouTube channel before hopping on the plane. In it, I raise an issue I think is not getting nearly enough attention: Do you feel comfortable — given what we now know about Biden — with him being president of the United States for the next four years?

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.” — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on today’s ruling on presidential immunity

ONE GOOD CHART

Joe Biden (age 81) and Donald Trump (age 78) are old — especially when compared to the median age of other world leaders (via WaPo).

SONG OF THE DAY

Wilco was my favorite band for many years. While I am not as obsessed with Jeff Tweedy and his bandmates as I once was, I still very much look forward to the new music they make. The band just released a 6-song EP called “Hot Sun Cool Shroud.” Here’s “Hot Sun”:

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