Over the past few days, Times Opinion has published a series of thoughtful, incisive guest essays about how to win a presidential debate. They were written by pollsters, political analysts, even a former presidential candidate — who described in searing detail what it's like to debate both Trump and Biden. But today, we're publishing an essay that captures a different side of debate prep: politics at its purest, the art of telling a good story, and doing it in ways even the most disillusioned voter can understand. I'd gone to Jeff Shesol a few weeks ago because he'd been a speechwriter for Bill Clinton. The challenge, he told me, is how to cut through the apathy many voters feel about the current political landscape and tell a story with enough clarity and force to capture their imagination. On our first phone call, he reminded me of a speech Ted Kennedy gave on the Senate floor during Robert Bork's 1987 confirmation fight. In it, Kennedy painted a picture of Bork's America — "a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy." In just one sentence, he'd cut through the noise. This, Jeff argues, is what Biden has to do on the debate stage tonight: fight his urge to tell a charming story about his father, avoid reverting to airy abstractions about the future of our democracy, and instead, conjure up an image of what America would look like after another four years under Trump. I'll let you read his conclusion for yourself, but it neatly captures what hangs in the balance during this election. It is no small irony that this is playing out against a backdrop of exhaustion, disillusionment and dread across the electorate. But as complicated as America may be today, at least one political truth remains steadfast and simple: More often than not, the winning campaign is the one that figures out how to define and control the narrative as a majority of voters understand it. Tonight may well be both candidates' best and last chance to tell a story that finally sticks in the minds of most Americans. All that stands in their way is their own worst instincts — a surreally resonant microcosm of a most consequential American moment. Read more debate coverage: Here's what we're focusing on today:
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Thursday, June 27, 2024
Opinion Today: What Biden and Trump must do tonight
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