Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
Near the end of Thursday night’s hard-to-watch presidential debate, Joe Biden and Donald Trump had an exchange about the most important issue facing the country: their golf handicaps. Responding to a question about concerns around their advanced ages, Trump began bragging about his golfing prowess, claiming he had won several “club championships” and remarking that he might weigh less than he did 25 or 30 years ago. Biden attempted a jokey response about Trump’s propensity for exaggeration, but failed to land the linguistic plane, as he had all evening. What followed was a drawn-out, machismo-filled insult contest between the two candidates that … well, you just try to make sense of it.
If this had been one awkward moment for Biden in a sea of strong answers, perhaps Democrats could laugh it off. Instead, it was more evidence that, other than a few instances, Biden could only counteract Trump’s nonsense with garbled responses and mangled putdowns.
