Biden so popular he didn’t want an audience at the debate

When you’re so popular even a CNN audience won’t cheer for you.

By Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine

Expectations for a CNN debate moderated by veteran media hacks should be set as low as possible even if one of the candidates had become largely incapable of coherently communicating, but this is still a tell.

When you understand that no audience, even a CNN audience, will be your personal Arsenio Hall dog pound, the whole idea that you’re popular with anyone goes up in smoke.

President Joe Biden’s advisers… resolved in private that if Biden ever faced Trump on a debate stage, there would be no one in the peanut gallery.

That demand became part of the reelection campaign’s agreed-upon proposal to Trump this week for their two general election debates, one in June the other in September. An empty TV studio could, Biden aides feel, deprive their GOP rival of a major advantage when they face off.

“Trump feeds off the crowd, they give him life,” said one Biden adviser who was granted anonymity in order to discuss internal strategy. “We wanted to take that away.”

And that may be the real issue.

There were audiences at previous debates and the proceedings didn’t devolve into the Arsenio Hall Show. But the real issue is that some performers feed off an audience’s energy, which Trump clearly does, while others perform better in a closed environment.

Personally, I do better in front of audiences. An audience can be intimidating which is why so many people reportedly have a fear of public speaking, but it also has an energy.

Within that energy, I feel flat when speaking. Does Biden do better in front of audiences or in closed rooms?

We’re working with a pretty low bar here, but Biden seems better able to pull off a speech if he’s got a teleprompter and a closed set. That may have less to do with his speaking style as he likes audiences, the trouble is they seem to distract him and he starts randomly making things up or spouting gibberish.

Give him the right meds and a prepared speech and the results are going to be less random and cringe-inducing.

And yet I suspect that matters less.

Biden isn’t really running for office, despite being an incumbent, he’s running against someone, Trump, not for anything. No one expects much from him and all they can hope for is to weaken Trump. And so no audience.

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