Welp.  That was not a great performance by the incumbent, was it?  Suffering from a cold, President Joe Biden came out without the benefit of the legendary Hi-Octane Five-Hour Energy Juice he had before the State of the Union.  And his opponent, convicted felon and one-time office holder Donald Trump, had the juice but didn’t have the facts.

Mumbly Biden will have long-time critics and new-found skeptics of the President’s competence taking up camera time discussing ways Biden can step aside graciously before the convention and have the delegates fight among themselves in floor campaigns among new candidates.

Others can, will and should point to the lack of substance to most of Trump’s responses.  Just like Infrastructure Week and Melania’s visa status, we’re still waiting for Trump’s positions on Israel and Social Security cuts.  Where Trump’s responses deflected, Biden’s–what you could make out of them–were policy-rich.

So here’s what’s not going to happen:  Biden isn’t going to step aside because of a poor performance tonight.  In a few weeks, this debate performance will be left to memes and comment sections in Breitbart.  He’ll have to make an effort to reassure people that he’s vigorous enough for a second term.  In a post-debate appearance at an Atlanta watch party, Biden appeared energetic if hoarse.

What will happen is, Biden’s poll numbers will drop a few points as the impact of the debate performance hits.  Democrats will need to step up their ground game and increase voter turnout drives.  Biden needs to prepare for the Convention, and it needs to be a major grand slam, breakaway, last-second field goal in the World Bowl Cup.  Remember:  voters will remember their last visual.  Democrats can’t let that be the last voters see of Biden.

Watch, also, for Trump and his Republican cultists start talking about canceling the second debate.  Why risk a faceplant on September 10th?  Two weeks after the DNC, Biden will be fired up to face Trump again, so watch for Hannity and others to call for him to back out.  (Incidentally, Biden should respond to discussions simply with, “He’s already agreed to it.  I expect him to be there.”)

Trump’s base got what it wanted; Biden’s didn’t.  Normally, I would highlight Trump’s consistently empty responses to the questions asked by the moderators–and the moderators’ need their feet held to the fire for permitting the gaslighting and deflection–but that’s what Donald Trump does:  he’s a performer.  If he started suddenly spewing facts about carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere or monthly trade levels with China, we should be far more worried.  But Trump’s answers were typically vacant of fact and substance because that’s who Trump is.