The Trump-Biden debate that became the Democrats' greatest nightmare

You never get a consensus in America. It is too polarized. Too tribal.

But this is different. There is a sweeping agreement across the political divide that this was a disastrous debate for President Joe Biden.

The president's performance was so halting and he looked so frail - his voice so hoarse, his mannerism so stiff - that Democrats are in disarray trying to explain what happens next.

Frankly, even his loyalists are in a state of panic.

It went wrong for Biden almost from the start. He lost his train of thought. He was mumbling, and sometimes was scarcely audible, and failed to fact-check Donald Trump. Biden improved in the later stages, but first impressions are powerful.

And the problem for the White House is that this was the president's best chance to alter the perception that he is in a state of physical and cognitive decline.

And, he is asking Americans to trust him with the Oval Office until January 2029.

Few people can honestly argue that the Biden candidacy is sustainable after last night's performance

Yet there is no straightforward mechanism to open up the Democratic presidential race all over again.

Biden is the party's nominee - to be crowned at the Democratic convention in Chicago later in the summer.

Only one person has the probable power to suggest he should step aside: his wife Jill. There is no evidence she will do that.

Donald Trump didn't win the debate. He repeatedly peddled falsehoods - 30 according to one fact-checker -and he dived deep into absurd conspiracy theories, and was ambiguous in his answers about the January 6 insurrection.

Trump failed to provide a positive vision for the nation.

But one point is uncontested: Biden lost.

And in truth - visible to anyone watching these two elderly men debate - there was another clear loser: America.

It remains astonishing that this great, innovative, youthful, superpower of a nation has given its people this choice.

There is something distinctly sad about a convicted felon debating a leader who is in clear decline, both fighting to be leader of the free world at a time when the challenges are so immense.

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