"Biden is losing, so he has no choice but to debate," writes Naughton. Not only are his polling numbers awful, "they are durably awful."
Naughton believes Biden's best debate outcome would be a repeat of the first 2020 debate.
"A raucous, barely controlled affair, that debate featured an angry Trump mixing it up with the moderators and hogging the attention. Biden, fresh from days of practice in his basement, and his advisers correctly fearful of gaffes, had to be thrilled that Trump made such a spectacle of himself, allowing Biden to escape by saying as little as possible."
Naughton questions whether Biden is even capable of debating this time. "Even with days of practice and a teleprompter, [Biden] made it only 20 minutes in this year's State of the Union before he started garbling his speech."
He even entertains the idea that Democrats want to use a couple of early summer debates to test Biden's ability to perform, and that, if he performs disastrously, they'll still have enough time to switch him out for Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Not much of an improvement, but at least she isn't on the wrong side of 80, and she might bring a little better energy and less angst to the ticket."
Whatever they're thinking, says Naughton, "Team Biden is taking a big risk. But they don't have much of a choice."
Read the op-ed at TheHill.com.
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