I woke up yesterday morning and started making calls.

I had a 7.30 p.m. appearance on CNBC and a question to answer on a loosely floated topic: Do debates matter any more? I dialed national and local reporters, strategists, analysts, campaign veterans, winners and losers, Republicans and Democrats alike.

All had the same basic answer. This far out from election day, unless there is a major gaffe or a major punch landed, it’ll be forgotten within 48 hours—maybe less, given our proximity to the July 4th holiday.

And then, 9 p.m. rolled around. I met up with media friends—all from New York City—of differing political persuasions. We talked trash, but mostly commiserated about the state of the country and wondered aloud about how these two people—a sympathetic well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory and an adjudged sexual assaulter and criminal felon—could be our only choices. This is America after all. We grew up in an era raised on Wheatie commercials, expecting gold medals at the Olympics, and when we told Gorbachev to ‘tear down this wall’ we meant it, and he did it.

In the run up to Thursday’s debate the GOP, recalling and preemptively defending against President Biden’s visible strength and cogency at the State of the Union a mere four months ago, was on-message and on offense. Biden would be ‘juiced up,’ presumably on performance-enhancing drugs to get........

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