Looking at the highlights of this glorious train wreck, my first takes.
- Biden could not clown Trump the way he destroyed Paul Ryan back in the day
- Trump realized Joe was not sleepy or demented and as easy to shutdown as he thought
- Trump is visibly pissed that Biden could end his whole political career, something he probably didn't yet realize until this debate
- Trump seemed to think that Chris was going to bat for him, trying to persuade him to his side and addressing him directly
- Biden and Trump are both poor at relaying campaign and party messages and both mostly hold their own positions,
Trump on proud boys and the virus, Biden on the supreme court and policing
Neither of them won decisively in the way they thought they could.
I think another debate would actually be helpful.
Now that they got this frustration out of their system and they sized each other up realizing they can both win they can rework their strategies accordingly.
Also Sleepy Joe is not as effective as 'Crooked Hillary'. Crooked could be associated with a number of things and is not only a powerful visual metaphor but also
as a way to highlight her weaknesses in dealing with foreign governments, wall street and other special interests. Crooked Hillary is a villain that Trump could defeat.
Sleepy Joe doesn't work as well because Sleepy doesn't hold the same weight to it as crooked. The same way as Dangerous Donald didn't work, becuase that actually sounds kind of cool.
The sleepy nickname also isn't tied to Joe's history and conduct as a career politician. So it mostly falls flat as an attack beyond memes. In fact it hurts Trump if he loses an argument
with Sleepy Joe. If even someone as sleepy as Joe can fight him in the ring, he comes across as rather weak and uncertain.
Trump should've gone with something like Sleazy Joe. Sleazy meaning that he would make deals with anyone, like the Chinese or Ukrainians to make sure he gets his piece of the pie and/or
cheat at the debates. That would make people question what Biden is doing when he's not out there campaigning and hiding in his basement. They can imagine him making all sorts of deals
and messing around with ballots or whatever. When it's sleepy, well, Joe is just sleeping in his basement. That's not a danger to anyone.
