James Carville's "advice" helped give us Trump 2.0

[karynnj]

73. I agree on Trump, but not on Bush in 2004

After the barrage of Swiftboat liars ads and the Republican convention, Kerry was almost 10 points behind. The debates were what made it close. So close, the Republicans needed voter suppression in Ohio cities. The difference may have been both Kerry's unusual skill as a debator and his enormous discipline that allowed him not to visibly react to Bush. ( also the advantage of seeing how the media beat up on Gore for sighing) Out of power, the only times Kerry had to speak directly to the country were his convention and the debates. Remember that Kerry could not do the half an hour paid ad that Obama did as he was very financially constrained.

Part of the problem is that as you described, the two sides are not treated equally. For Biden to refuse to debate, the he is too old, too mentally challenged would have been as bad as doing the debate sick. I think his team saw the 2020 debates as either helpful or a draw. What i wonder in hindsight is whether they could have set the stage better by using the 2020 footage to focus on Trump not answering questions, lying and being abusive. In 2020, Biden did best when calling Trump out for doing exactly that.

The sad thing is that even with detailed press conferences and interviews where Biden gave great, thoughtful answers to complex questions, once the terrible debate happened it could not have been corrected. I suspect that might have been because it fit the narrative that Biden was getting too old that was omnipresent on the right and in more mainstream places where there was a desire for him to transition to someone younger.