The coronavirus crisis has made at least one part of American life better: presidential debates.
Sunday night’s CNN showdown between the two frontrunners for the Democratic presidential nomination demonstrated that.
Originally, former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, were supposed to square off in Arizona. They would have traded shots before an audience packed with partisans. Acolytes for each would have applauded and cheered each rehearsed talking point.
The coronavirus pandemic changed all that.
With schools, sports leagues, businesses, communities and even entire states shutting their doors across the country, both Biden and Sanders have sent their campaign staffs away to work from home. Both candidates also have cancelled public appearances and now hold virtual rallies to campaign.
This new reality demanded a different venue and approach.
The candidates met in a sparely designed soundstage at CNN’s Washington, D.C., studios. Their lecterns were set apart by the requisite six feet of social distance. When they came together, they eschewed the traditional pre-debate handshakes for awkward, almost off-balance elbow bumps.
It was a setting that suited the historic moment, one built for sobriety rather than showmanship.
If recent days have taught human beings anything, it is that there are some forces that can’t be messaged or marketed into insignificance.
The coronavirus appears to be one of them.
Both candidates, in their different ways, tried to rise to the moment. Both — in their different ways — succeeded to some degree.
Sanders had the more difficult task. Coming into the debate, his chances of claiming the nomination were long to non-existent. He trails Biden by more than 150 delegates and the states with upcoming primaries aren’t likely to fall in Sanders’ direction.
One sensed, though, that Sanders no longer is running to win. He is looking for a way to make sure that the issues he and his devoted supporters care about aren’t forgotten.
The debate gave Sanders a chance to do that.
For instance, he argued, effectively, that more than two decades of playing political games with healthcare left America poorly equipped to deal with the current crisis. He didn’t close the deal on his “Medicare-for-all” pitch, but he did make the case that risking people’s lives and well-being to score political points no longer is acceptable — if it ever was.
Biden agreed on that larger point.
That was one of the things that was striking about the debate. On many of the issues in question, both candidates agreed on what should be done. Where they disagreed was on how it should be done.
Biden argued that all Americans should have good healthcare coverage. Where he parted company with Sanders was over the way it should be provided. If Americans like their private insurance, Biden contended, they should be able to keep it.
But everyone should have coverage, both men said.
Everyone should have access to healthcare.
The discussion of the coronavirus provided the debate’s most serious and important moments.
Biden was at his most effective there.
Gone, for the moment, was the gaffe-prone, often goofily awkward candidate Biden. In his place was the veteran of many crises. His demeanor alone made the case that experience matters.
His argument, though, was bigger than that.
He took aim at President Donald Trump’s half-baked nationalism — the notion that America can retreat from a world it helped make — and hit the target. Biden argued that the federal government’s flailing response to the coronavirus crisis and the world’s descent into chaos are related.
Both have occurred because the United States, on Trump’s watch, has abdicated its leadership role and responsibilities.
That was the crux of Biden’s case.
Helping others solve their problems often is the best way to solve ours, too.
All in all, the debate was a low-key event, sober to the point of somberness.
That, in its way, was reassuring — a reminder that we Americans still can resist denying harsh realities.
And rise to meet daunting challenges when we confront them.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. Send comments to [email protected].
