It’s debate day. Insanely early (the contestants have yet to be nominated), but debate day nonetheless. 

It’s Rocky versus Apollo. The rematch. Or more like Rocky versus Mickey — if Rocky’s elderly trainer had been reduced to a senile stooge in the throes of dementia, better suited for an assisted living facility than the boxing ring.

But we’ve been told ad nauseam by President Joe Biden’s handlers and his corporate media public-relations firm that the Democrat is ready for the rhetorical fight with a bare-knuckle brawler. After all, young Joe Biden once went toe to toe with a Delaware gang leader. Corn Pop was a “bad dude,” Biden told us. A bad dude with a blade. But he backed down upon seeing Joe armed with a six-foot chain and an apology. At least that’s the old windbag’s story, and he’s sticking to it. 

Two Joes

But what kind of Joe Biden will viewers with a presidential debate fetish see on stage tonight against former President Donald Trump, the soon-to-be three-time GOP presidential nominee that Biden’s Justice Department is trying hard to imprison? 

Will it be rise-to-the-occasion Joe, the guy who astounds Dem-friendly political commentators with his clarity of message and unusual burst of vigor — manufactured as it may be? Expectations for this guy have long been lower than the bunker he hid out in during the 2020 election. Or will it be Hollywood gliteratti fundraiser Joe, the petrified piece of human wood that freezes up for seconds on stage in his best Cocaine Mitch impersonation? (If so, will his former boss, President Barack Hussein Obama, be there to grab the old fellow’s wrist and lead him off stage?) 

Conservative political junkies believe Biden will get a little help from his friends at CNN, host of the first debate. It is, after all, the same Trump-hating network whose former contributor, Donna Brazile, former acting chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, tipped off Hillary Clinton’s campaign to question topics in advance of a 2016 town hall event. As my Federalist colleague Brianna Lyman noted in a piece this week, Thursday’s debate moderator, Jake Tapper, has likened Trump to Adolf Hitler. Co-moderator Dana Bash’s ex-husband, an operative for the CIA, signed the 2020 letter that shrugged off Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation weeks before the election. CNN, by the way, went along with the lie until it finally decided the lie was no longer tenable. So not a reassuring resume for an unbiased debate. 

Democrat strategists say Biden will “bait” Trump into being overly confrontational or focusing on the rigged 2020 election, according to corporate media players. They insist, too, that Trump allies have urged the former president to be a kinder, gentler Donald, not a “Raging -sshole,” as ethically bereft Rolling Stone put it in a headline Wednesday. “Don’t take the bait,” a “Republican who has recently advised Trump on the 2024 debate prep” reportedly told the leftist publication. 

Does the same go for Biden? He has routinely come across as a belligerent and confused dementia patient when asked basic questions at rare press conferences and on the campaign trail. Will the incumbent get caught up in Trump’s likely attacks on Biden’s handling of the economy, the border, national security, and the cloud of corruption that hangs over the Biden family? How about when he mentions Biden’s 54-year-old boy, Hunter, the degenerate with a penchant for raking in cash on the family name — and crack? You might just see a Will Smith Oscar’s slap moment from the geezer-in-chief, as he screams at Trump, “Keep my son’s name out of your (expletive deleted) mouth!” There’s definitely peril for Biden on the agitation front. Perhaps much depends on the med cocktail mix.

The Joe We Know 

The Biden that will be most problematic for a far-left that will do anything to hold executive branch power is the real Biden — the gibberish-speaking, confused-looking old man that he is. If he shuts his eyes in public for a creepy or sleepy extended period of time, as he has been prone to do, that’s trouble. If he goes into rambling accounts of his WWII pilot uncle eaten by cannibals or the like, that’s trouble. If he turns into a block of ice before millions of viewers, not even the cover-running accomplice media will be able to save him in the eyes of the majority of voters — right and left — who think Biden is too senile to be president. 

Then again, this first debate is so early that it’s very possible most Americans will forget about it by the time early voting and Election Day come around. Joe Biden surely will have.