How to
Debate a Demagogue
Biden will have to debate Trump at some point. Here's how to keep it from becoming a circus
BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN
How do you debate
someone who won't debate? It's a little like trying to negotiate with someone
who doesn't know that there's supposed to be give and take involved. This is
Joe Biden's problem with the upcoming Presidential debates. I liked Tom
Friedman's suggestion that Biden should refuse to debate unless Trump finally
releases his tax returns, but that's never gonna happen. There are also naïve
suggestions being made that Trump will bail from these debates entirely, but we
all know that his bent ego and pathological narcissism won't let him miss these
opportunities to strut his stuff.
Ideally, for Covid-19
reasons, the debate commission will dispense with the live audiences, which are
nothing but partisan cheering sections who must be constantly admonished to
stop idiotically applauding random stump speech lines. And hopefully, the
moderators won't be afraid to ask tough questions and fact-check the speakers
in real time for phony and misleading answers. Learning only later that Trump
lied about lives lost, vague vaccines, and our "roaring" economy
doesn't do anyone much good. A lie in today's world repeated often enough
without fear of contradiction can become a bastardized form of the truth for a
depressingly large part of the population.
But even with changes,
Biden's got a serious task ahead of him because successfully debating with a
reality TV caricature on live television is almost impossible. Decency and
decorum can be a devastating detriment. The debates are all about one single
idea: most people understand energy better than facts. In this
crazy, misnamed and flatulent forum, it is speed, style and screaming that can
easily overwhelm substance. Conviction, even if it's unfounded and baseless,
comes blasting through the tube. This is much more about heat than light. The
best liars actually do believe their own lies and sadly, on television, it
sells. Sincerity, and calm competence, not so much.
Joe's job is to show
that all the noise, bluster and energy in the world doesn't move anything
forward if it's not connected to the wheels of the train and to some reality.
Pedaling furiously in place gets you nowhere. Trump always wanted the pomp and
the power of the job but was never interested in actually doing the hard work
of governing. He did a masterful job of running his Daddy's businesses into the
ground over several decades and he's done no better for us. Every entrepreneur
knows that it takes far more talent and skill to grow or change a business than
to simply run one. Trump has done neither.
Real entrepreneurs are
constantly selling their own ideas to investors, regulators, team members and
customers and often find themselves in quite similar situations. Whether you're
facing lying competitors, know-it-all venture investors, regulators with a lot of
power but no clue as to your business, or customers who don't want to hear the
truth, you will need to figure out how to handle these conversations and
conflicts and come out on top. So does Joe.
The key is an old
ju-jitsu adage: you want to manipulate and use your opponent's force against
him rather than confronting him directly with a force of your own. Never was
Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-Dope strategy more timely and fitting. What I'd love to
see is that every time Trump goes off on a wild tangent, Biden just chuckles
and simply quotes the old Reagan line: "there you go again".
So here are three
critical things to keep in mind.
(1) Don't Shoot Someone Who's
Committing Suicide
Trump is desperate and
losing and he knows it. Don't get in his way or interrupt him as he digs
himself deeper and deeper into the hole. He can't help himself. He does more
damage every day to his own campaign and to what tiny bit of credibility he may
have remaining (solely by virtue of his office), which hasn't already been
trashed by his erratic and irrational behavior. People think that because he's
the president, he must know something. This is why he's fond of pretending to
"know" things without ever actually telling us anything.
In business, when your
competition is lying about his products or yours, the customers don't want to
hear more of the BS; they want sensible solutions, not slander, and they want
to get on with their business. People who have nothing real to offer also have
nothing to lose and are willing to say anything. Eventually the world wakes up.
You don't lose to the competition; you lose when you lose your own way. Stick
to your script, tell your story, and get the job done.
(2) Don't Wrestle in the Mud
with A Pig
The problem with
rolling in the mud with a pig is that you get muddy and the pig loves it. When
you sling mud, you lose ground and, as tempting as it is to call the other guy
out for a multitude of sins, it's best to resist the temptation. No one but
Trump thinks you can win a race to the bottom and no one knows how low he's
willing to go. Hopefully, the American people are sufficiently fatigued and
looking for a way forward - not more of the same lies - but, as much as plans
and policies are important, they have no real place in these debates. It's all
about personality and passion.
Leaders in politics
and businesses can cast light or shadows and we've spent four long and painful
years in the dark. Strength and stability are far more compelling right now
than stats and specifics - especially since there's NO time in these debates to
get into the details. Trying to catch Trump in a lie is easy but getting him to
admit anything is like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree. This sorry
situation will make life on stage very difficult for Biden because there's
really no way to make sense of the mess Trump's made in the short time
allotted.
Joe can't let himself
be sucked into the sludge. If he can simply be the caring, empathetic, compassionate,
and decent human being that he is, the comparison to the Orange Ogre will be
too stark for anyone to miss. Biden needs to make his case strongly, concretely,
and swiftly. Get the key messages across and forget the gorilla in the room.
They call it a race for a reason.
(3) Wield the Truth with
Care
Unfortunately, the
truth is always messy. It rarely makes a good, simple story because very little
in our lives these days is sharply contrasted. And, of course, many people live
in a bubble of their own making and would just as soon not hear the
uncomfortable and inconvenient truth anyway. Saying what no one wants to hear
is never easy, but this awful task falls to Biden. This is his main and utterly
thankless job in the debates. But it's an honorable responsibility. Tell us where
we are, Joe, and show us where we hope to be. It's not going to be a short
trip, there are no simple solutions, and there will be plenty of bumps along
the way. But we'll never get there if we don't start now.
Our best hope is that,
in November, the truth will finally overtake the devious and damaged maniac in
the Oval Office and the people will turn him out.