Opinion | After That Debate, the Risk of Biden Is Clear – The New York Times
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The Ezra Klein Show
I joined my Times Opinion colleagues Ross Douthat and Michelle Cottle to discuss the debate — and what Democrats might do next.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation. To listen to this episode, click the play button below.
Ezra Klein: It was a very bad night for President Biden, which I think makes it a quite bad night for democracy. And there’s a lot to say on the debate. I recorded a show with my colleagues over at “Matter of Opinion” Ross Douthat and Michelle Cottle, and so a lot of what I can say is in there.
I will say that all of my thinking right now is provisional. The debate just ended. We will kind of see how things emerge. One of the things that you’ll hear me say here that I’ve been rethinking is that when I did my piece in February about why Democrats should think about replacing Biden at the convention, something I said in that piece was that Biden is perfectly able to do the job of the president, from everything I can tell, but that he’s not really able to perform the job of the presidency, that he’s not up to the job of campaigning for the presidency. And pretty shortly after I said that, I felt like that line was a little bit wrong, and I feel more so now.
And what I mean by that is that communicating is part of the job of the president. Instilling confidence in people that you can do the job of the president is part of the job of the president. Being able to tell the story of your administration in a compelling way that pulls people to your side, that makes them understand what you were doing and why it is good for them — that is part of the job of the president.
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