As a neutral, I only watched the debate to see how badly Biden would do. Yes, he lost his train of thought once or twice. But I was surprised how well he did overall in what was nearly 2-hours. So much so, that I nodded off eventually and woke up a little before the end. Immediately it finished (I was watching the NBC coverage), they started saying it was a terrible performance and Biden would need to be replaced. I then opened up the NYTimes and Washington Post websites (miraculously, for the first time in three years, the articles are suddenly available to non-subscribers). Full of the same coverage, and posted within seconds of the debate ending. Now am listening to the post mortems (still on NBC) and all they want to talk about is how badly Biden did, how many Democratic figures are calling them to say the race is now over, and what options are available to get him off the ticket. Isn't it obvious that the whole thing has been choreographed to do just that?
