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Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hi, everybody. Ian Bremmer here. It is late, and we have just seen the first, maybe the last presidential debate of 2024. I was skeptical about the strategy from day one of Biden getting on stage with Trump. Biden has never been a great campaigner, doesn't have a lot of discipline, and isn't enormously entertaining. But they decided they needed to do it. And the rules benefited a normal politician. The microphones shut off, except for the person who was allowed to speak, and there was no live audience, and it was CNN. So the questions are going to be, at the very least, balance between the two. And, if there's going to be a slant, it'll be towards Biden and not towards Trump. And despite all of that, Biden got absolutely pasted.
And it's not about his speaking points per se; there were some points that he made, if you just look at the transcript, that clearly was in his favor, I would say, on balance, on the economy, his command of the facts was stronger than that of Trump. I saw that, in terms of talk of inflation and jobs. I saw that in terms of China and the trade deficit with China, that's actually narrowed as opposed to increased. Certainly, on abortion, I think that Biden would have landed more punches if you were only looking at the transcript. But no one is looking at the transcript. They're looking at the performance. And the performance, Biden was abysmal.
It wasn't just like a little bit on Trump's side. Trump looked vibrant. He actually, largely played by the rules. He sounded strong. He stuck to his time limit. And Biden looked and occasionally sounded incoherent. And the reality is that, I mean, Trump, in my view, shouldn't be running because he's unfit for being president. Biden shouldn't be running because he is too old to stand. And of the two challenges, the latter looks a lot worse on the debate stage that 50 plus percent of Americans just watched. The inbound that I've been receiving over the last two hours from people all over the world is overwhelmingly: "Is Biden now going to stand down? What is going to happen?" Because this is the worst evening, certainly of his campaign, and the level of pressure to find someone, anyone else other than Biden, to run is going to be strong.