Admit it, Thursday night's presidential debate didn't change anything for anyone (2024)

Did anyone’s personal viewpoint or political position change after watching Thursday night’s presidential debate? Likely not.

We simply woke up today with the same stubborn support, simmering anger and lingering biases before President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump further embarrassed our proudly polarized nation. The debate, billed as the most significant one of its kind in U.S. history, only amplified or confirmed how most of us feel about Biden and Trump.

The American people learned nothing substantive to better judge or scrutinize both candidates who’ve served full terms as president and who’ve been in our lives for decades. Instead, we rolled around in the political mud with them, cheering or jeering the next president of our country.

This morning, viewers staggered from their bed, glanced back to the shameful one-night stand they had with two elderly men, and rationalized why they invited them into their home the night before. It would be the first time they’ve shared the same air space since debating each other in the fall of 2020.

It doesn’t matter which candidate was called the winner Thursday night because both camps will claim victory.

Unless one of these guys dropped dead on stage or got into a fistfight, the debate was more about entertainment than enlightenment. (Due to time constraints, I wrote this column before the debate began. If a death or fistfight took place, I apologize in hindsight.)

Despite how intoxicating the debate felt to us leading up to it — truly must-see TV for tens of millions of Americans — the sobering truth is clear: It likely didn’t change anyone’s mind about anything that matters.

Trump supporters will follow their hero into hell regardless of his actions. Biden supporters will follow their antihero into a second term regardless if he deserves it. Voters still on the fence at this point deserve to rot there, dangling in the harsh wind of hesitance.

If you’re considering voting for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who didn’t meet criteria to join the debate, you might as well vote for John F. Kennedy, who has the same chance of winning or playing spoiler.

“My exclusion by Presidents Biden and Trump from the debate is undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly,” Kennedy said in a statement before the debate. “Americans want an independent leader who will break apart the two-party duopoly. They want a President who will heal the divide, restore the middle class, unwind the war machine, and end the chronic disease epidemic.”

Maybe. But it’s not this Kennedy who’s going to do it.

Hilary Clinton will likely never again be a legitimate presidential candidate, but her resume has something on it that is rare and unique. She has previously debated Biden and Trump, writing about it in a guest essay for the New York Times.

“It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather,” she wrote.

Nonetheless, blather is the daily language of the average American. It’s how we mostly communicate with each other, whether it’s in person, on social media, or through forwarded emails full of flat-out lies, distorted facts and conspiracy theories. Blather is political rhetoric’s delivery driver. It pulls up to the door, dumps out a body of nonsense from the trunk, and speeds away.

If the word blather describes Trump, the word blither describes Biden. I cringe watching him walk to a podium and pretend to be angry or authoritative or 20 years younger. I seriously worry about his physical health and mental well-being if he’s reelected for four more years.

Biden’s staff did everything it could to prepare him for Thursday night’s debate, but it won’t conceal his garish weaknesses and age-related vulnerabilities. Trump’s staff simply had to drive him to the debate and let him loose like a cannon shooting verbal attacks at his opponent.

“Yet expectations for him are so low that if he doesn’t literally light himself on fire on Thursday evening, some will say he was downright presidential,” Hilary Clinton wrote in her essay.

This is true and it’s why last night’s debate is a largely meaningless sideshow on the road to Election Day in November.

That day is still more than four months away with the Democratic and Republican national conventions yet to be held. Both events will serve as nothing more than pep rallies littered with promises and propaganda. Trump and Biden will soon be named their official party candidate, ratcheting up more public attacks at each other’s character.

One of the key issues through the rest of this campaign season is if each candidate is “fit” for office. How sad. The situation resembles two old geezers at an assisted living facility campaigning for the job of selecting which flavor of oatmeal for the breakfast menu.

If you disagree with my admittedly blind assessment of last night’s debate, look at the bright side. A second sideshow is scheduled for September. You bring the snacks. I’ll bring the truth.