ABD’de Demokrat Parti delegelerinin ve Demokrat Parti seçmenlerinin perşembe gecesi itibariyle yaşadığı duygular bunlar olsa gerek. Kasım ayındaki ABD başkanlık seçimleri öncesi mevcut Demokrat Başkan Joe Biden ile eski Cumhuriyetçi başkan Donald Trump arasında ilk münazara yapıldı. Tüm Amerika’nın ve tabii dünyanın canlı yayında izlediği bu münazaranın sonucu, Biden açısından bir felaketti.

Biden Kasım ayında 82 yaşını dolduracak. Uzun zamandır sağlık sorunları yaşıyor. Bu sebeple Biden’ın bu münazaradaki performansı zaten bir endişe kaynağıydı, ama sanırım hiç kimse bu kadar kötüsünü beklemiyordu. Enerjik görünmesi ve ‘4 yıl daha ülkeyi yönetebileceğine halkı ikna etmesi gereken’ Biden, Demokratlar’ın en güçlü olduğu “kürtaj” gibi başlıklarda bile etkili mesajlar veremedi. Trump’ın “ABD NATO bütçesinin yüzde 100’ünü karşılıyor, Avrupa ABD araçlarının ithalatını yasaklıyor” gibi doğru olmayan sözlerini yalanlamada bile atik davranamadı. 1,5 saatlik tartışmada odaklanma sorunu yaşadı, hatta zaman zaman konuşmakta zorlandı.

Trump’ın da iyi bir performans sergilediğini söylemek mümkün değil. Hakkındaki davayla ilgili sorulara doğrudan yanıt vermekten kaçındı, 6 Ocak’taki Kongre baskınındaki rolüne dair sorulara tatmin edici cevaplar veremedi ama Biden o kadar kötü bir performans sergiledi ki, Trump münazaranın kazananı oldu. Demokratlar işte bu yüzden büyük panikte.

Keşke…

Bu tip münazaralar ABD demokrasinin bir geleneği. 1976’da kurulan Başkanlık Münazaraları Komisyonu, o tarihten beri bu tartışmalarının yapılmasını sağlıyor, adaylar da hem geleneğin sürdürülmesi hem de ABD halkına saygının bir gereği olarak televizyon ekranlarında kozlarını paylaşıyor. Geçmiş dönemlere göre epey erken yapılan ilk tur için Demokratların çok daha istekli ve ısrarcı olduğunu biliyoruz. Trump’ın devam eden dava süreçlerinin sıcaklığı geçmeden onu köşeye sıkıştırmak için bunu istediler ama eminim bunu böylesine iştiyakla istediklerine pişman oldular. Münazara başladıktan sonra başlıkta yazdığım ruh haline girmeleri sadece birkaç dakikalarını aldı. Parti yöneticileri, karar vericiler ama özellikle Biden’ın kampanyasına fon sağlayan iş insanları şimdi ‘ne yapacağız’ diye kara kara düşünüyorlar.

These must be the feelings that Democratic Party delegates and Democratic Party voters in the USA were experiencing as of Thursday night. Before the US presidential elections in November, the first debate was held between current Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican president Donald Trump. The result of this debate, which was watched live by the whole of America and of course the world, was a disaster for Biden.

Biden will turn 82 in November. He has had health problems for a long time. So Biden's performance in this debate was already a cause for concern, but I don't think anyone expected it this bad. Biden, who should appear energetic and 'convince the public that he can rule the country for another 4 years', could not give effective messages even on topics such as "abortion", where the Democrats are strongest. He could not even act quickly in denying Trump's untrue statements such as "The USA covers 100 percent of the NATO budget, Europe bans the import of US vehicles." He had trouble focusing during the 1.5-hour discussion and even had difficulty speaking at times.

It is not possible to say that Trump performed well either. He avoided directly answering questions about the case against him and could not give satisfactory answers to questions about his role in the Congress raid on January 6, but Biden performed so poorly that Trump became the winner of the debate. That's why Democrats are in such a panic.

If only…

These types of debates are a tradition of US democracy. The Presidential Debates Commission, which was established in 1976, has been ensuring that these debates have been held since then, and the candidates have been debating on television screens as a matter of both maintaining the tradition and respecting the American people. We know that Democrats are much more willing and insistent for the first round, which was held much earlier than in previous periods. They wanted this to corner Trump before the heat of the ongoing litigation process passed, but I'm sure they regretted wanting it so eagerly. After the debate started, it only took a few minutes for them to get into the mood I wrote in the title. Party executives, decision makers, but especially business people who funded Biden's campaign are now wondering "what to do?"

More News

'We have a problem'

The host of the first debate was CNN International. Speaking to this channel afterwards, Democratic Party members evaluated, "We have a serious problem after this performance of Biden." Because the picture that emerged was this:

“He knew the topics that might come up, he had two minutes to respond, but he couldn't. “Biden no longer has the physical and mental capacity to do better than this.” This is the confrontation that plunged the Democrats into great panic. Democratic Party members ask: "How will we continue with Biden?" Even though they ask the question, they don't seem to be able to admit it even to themselves at the first stage. Vice President Kamala Harris's first comment on the debate makes this clear:

“What we saw tonight was that the President was in very clear contrast to Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people. Yes, it was a slow start, but it was a strong finish.”

Harris' defense was unconvincing. He tried to divert attention from Biden's situation, arguing that rather than focusing on this 1.5-hour debate, it was necessary to focus on his performance over the 3.5-year period.

Couldn't scare the enemy

There is also a global dimension to the matter. Biden is not just a candidate, he is the current President and Commander in Chief of the country. In this way, the USA's global rivals such as Russia, China and Iran have clearly seen how and in what state of leader the country they are dealing with is governed. Therefore, the USA's need for a strong, or at least healthy, president will be mentioned more loudly. Comments have already begun to be made saying 'Someone should tell Biden that you should quit now'. Post-debate CNN polls also confirm this. According to the polls in question, 67 percent of those who watched the debate think Trump won. Biden's vote rate is 33 percent. Before the debate, these rates were 55 percent versus 45 percent; With the resulting performance, Biden fell by 12 points.

As a result, President Biden now needs a second round more than Trump, but whether he can do better is a big question mark. In short, the possibility of falling further behind is the Democratic Party's nightmare.