I Think I've Figured It Out

As I mentioned yesterday, I''ve been gnawing for days over the question why, among other things, the Biden campaign came up with the ides of a June debate. In fact, let's remember, this was one of several non-negotiable terms Trump had to accept if he wanted to debate at all, incluiding muted microphones when the other guy was talking. Trump accepted all those terms right away, even though it's generally thought they put him at a disadvantage. Why?

I might be the only person besides Chrlamagne tha God who's asking why the Biden campaign ever thought this up. I think the answer is that the Biden people had a plan, and they're sticking to it. According to their plan, the debate is going to be the final blow that puts the election out of Trump's reach.

In fact, they selected the June debate not to give the Democrats time to find a replacement if Joe performs badly, but to give the Republicans time to replace Trump at their own convention when he falls flat on his face during the debate -- I'm not sure what they have in mind, maybe the Dr Strangelove moment where he blurts, "Mein Fuehrer! I can walk!" But nobody replaces Caesar, count on it. Replacing Joe wasn't, and isn't a contingency.

Let's reason back from this hypothetical Biden scenario. A lot of Republican commentators are actually nervous that Trump, who is mentally and emotionally a 12-year-old, will lose control -- remember when the same guys were nervous that he'd take the witness stand in New York and lose it? -- and he'll blow the whole campaign right there, maybe an n-word, maybe an enraged growl that Jeff Davis had a point, whatever, that'll put the whole game away for Biden in June. For Joe's handlers, this isn't just a remote possibility, it's the likely event.

So let's back up. Joe's campaign scheduled the debate for a date two weeks after what they knew would be a busy time for Joe himself on the world stage, in France for the D-Dsy commemoration, back home for an early Juneteenth to solidify his black support, then back to Europe for the G7, then back to Hollywood for a triumphal rally with Obama -- all of this leading up to a culminating victory over Trump in an early first debate, the timing and the rules forced on Trump in a script he couldn't refuse.

For anyone to ask within the White House if Joe had the stamina to bring all this off would, we've learned, risk ostracism by the cool kids in the inner circle. As far as I can see, the whole idea would be for Joe to sprint for a few weeks in June looking presidential on the world stage, come home and rest up for a week, and then put the coup de grâce on the whole Trump campaign at the debate. In fact, Joe can just stand by and let Trump do the job himself without an audience to roar Sieg Heil! on his behalf.

That's the plan. For anyone like me who's wondering why Joe's campaign would envision putting an octogenarian through not just a traditional campaign that starts on Labor Day but doesnm't really heat up until the World Series is over, much less a campaign with a first debate im June, that's not the plan. Joe sprints in June, maybe a little much for the big guy, but he can pull it off, he finishes the job at the first debate, and then he coasts to reelection in November, probably after the Republicans bring back Mitt Romney as their candidate in Milwaukee. No need even to break a sweat after June, he can campaign from Rehoboth Beach.

That's the only explanation I've been able to come up with for the timing of the debate -- which again was 100% the Biden campaign's idea, forced on Trump if he wanted a debate at all -- that it will end the campaign even before the traditional campaign season begins. Here and there, an observer will pipe up in some place like Australia and ask why, leading up to the debate, Trump is running a campaign and rallying in Philadelphia, while Biden isn't campaigning at all, he's resting in Camp David.

Tha's not a bug, it's a feature. The point is for Joe not to have to campaign, he isn't up to it. At leasst, that's the plan.