MSNBC Analyst Reveals What Focus Groups Say They'll Watch for at Debate, and It Should Terrify Joe Biden
This week we've seen a flurry of activity related to the first 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former POTUS Donald Trump, scheduled for Thursday, June 27th, and hosted/moderated by CNN.
For instance, we've learned that Biden, as per the norm, will go into hiding to do preparations while Trump plans to stay out in the field campaigning. It has also been reported that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won't be on the debate stage after all due to an alleged failure to meet certain qualifying benchmarks.
Media outlets like CBS News and the AP have also noted that the Biden campaign is promising some "surprises" from Joe Biden, which in all likelihood means his handlers are predicting Biden will be able to utter some coherent sentences for a change, which indeed would be quite the surprise.
CBS News Teases 'Surprises' From Biden for the Debate
During a "Morning Joe" segment Friday, NBC News/MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan, who worked for the State Dept. under George W. Bush's presidency, revealed what focus groups in Wisconsin said about what they'd be watching for at the first debate. I think it's safe to say their responses will give the Biden campaign nightmares:
“...[Biden] absolutely cannot have a senior moment at this debate. I was in Wisconsin and Michigan two weeks ago for a lot of focus groups, and what I heard from voters, Democrats who support Biden, is just that they’re going to be watching and they want to make sure that he’s up to the task. They might still be planning to vote for him, but they still, they’re uncomfortable about the age. And it really is an albatross that is hanging around this candidate and campaign.”
Watch:
Newsflash: If Biden can't have a senior moment at the debate without it cratering his approval/support numbers, he might as well hang it up now because it's inevitable he's going to have one, or two - heck, probably a whole lot more senior moments than that, especially if his history is a reliable indicator (and it is).
What will probably happen, though, is that no matter how many "senior moments" Biden has, the media will take the one or two moments where Trump might have trouble answering a question and will use them to suggest that Trump had his "senior moments," too. In their view, that will negate the points being made by Biden's critics that his advanced age and questionable mental acuity make him unfit for another four years in the White House.
While that media spin is inevitable, what remains to be seen is if enough viewers/readers buy into it and decide as a result to give Biden a pass. Then again, even if Biden was sharp as a tack it still would be unlikely to get him over the hump with voters on the issues of inflation and the economy, both of which they continue to give him low marks over.
Whatever the case may be, I'm stocking up on the popcorn - and the extra strength Tylenol - ahead of next week's debate, because it promises to be a wild ride.
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