Biden vs. Trump: A Wrenching Debate

To the Editor:

For viewers hoping for a forward-looking, uplifting and edifying debate, they did not get it. Instead, with a few exceptions, what was on display was an embarrassing, concerning, nasty and petty (dueling golf handicaps, really?) 90 minutes of incessant personal attacks, charges and countercharges between two men, a shockingly befuddled and enervated current president, and a breathtakingly mendacious and caustic former president.

Both clearly exhibited a visceral enmity for each other and failed time and time again to speak to the issues of concern to the American people in a compelling manner befitting the occasion.

The mutually problematic performances validate the unpopularity of these two candidates among voters. The reality is that neither man is fit to serve as commander in chief for very different reasons, and this is the sad and stark reality confronting the nation.

Mark Godes
Chelsea, Mass.

To the Editor:

I am a lifetime liberal Democrat who has watched every American presidential debate since 1960.

President Biden failed at the one job he had to do in the debate — persuade American voters that he has the cognitive ability to earn another four years in office. His voice was raspy and wheezy and his answers were often fumbling, rambling, mumbling and incoherent.

He was ineffective even on the issues on which he should be the strongest — abortion rights and Jan. 6. His comment that “we beat Medicare” will be replayed thousands of times.