The debate of the season is allegedly supposed to happen a week from today on CNN between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I say allegedly, because after the last couple of weeks the President has had, I will be stunned if he actually shows up on stage. 

Originally floated by Biden as an offer his campaign believed Trump would never accept, the former President did accept on Hugh Hewitt's show - anytime, any place. Now that it's locked in for the 27th with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash co-moderating, both sides are officially into debate prep mode. For Trump, that means refining his approach so that he doesn't come across as antagonistic and off-putting as he was in the first debate of the 2020 cycle. For Biden, it means pharmaceutical research to come up with the elixir that will maintain its potency for an entire 90-minute debate without wearing off. Why would such a potion need to be brewed? Let's review Biden's most recent fortnight. At the G7:





From the fundraiser in Los Angeles:



From the amnesty speech at the White House Tuesday:



And from the trip to Delaware after the Bill and Hillary Clinton fundraiser Wednesday night, notice how carefully Dr. Jill Dr. Biden, Ed.D is leading him from the White House to Marine 1 after a long day. Joe had to downshift from his shuffling gear to an amble resembling a post-surgery hospital lap around the floor, complete with a delta formation of handlers covering every possible open space to catch Biden if he stumbled. 



Once they flew to Andrews Air Force Base, the transfer to the motorcade SUV got even rougher. 



Look, if the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, is having trouble negotiating the entry into a Chevrolet Suburban, it's hard to blame him for not quite having a handle on 15 million illegal immigrants flooding the country, two hot wars that began due to his foreign policy, rampant inflation, and skyrocketing crime in inner cities. Hell, even one of the President's Secret Service detail got mugged at gunpoint during the Los Angeles stop. In short, the American dream train has left the station for a large chunk of the country on this administration's watch. But forget all that. Biden's got real problems - climbing into a car. It's no wonder CNN is demanding the debate next Thursday be a sit-down affair. 

I'm doubtful the debate will happen, and Joe Biden has the perfect out. It's a lame excuse, and they'll get killed over it, but I can easily see the Biden campaign, if not Biden himself, saying it's beneath the dignity of the office of the president to share the stage with a convicted felon, so the debate is off. Whatever downside to them pulling the rip cord is not nearly as bad as demonstrating that he's just not up to this job anymore. 

While most of my Debate Watch bandwidth has been dedicated to this upcoming contest in Atlanta, something happened in Toronto Monday night at Roy Thomson Hall which I didn't have on my radar at all. The Munk Debates convened in a two-on-two format to discuss the proposition that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Now let me say at the outset here that the fact that we are in the year of our Lord 2024 and we have to have a debate on this subject is equal parts dismaying and depressing. Of course, anti-Zionism is antisemitic. There are only two sets of people that have any doubt as to that question - people who are uneducated on the history of the state of Israel, and antisemites. 

Taking up the pro side of the proposition are two very capable people - British author and journalist Douglas Murray, and director of UK Lawyers For Israel, Natasha Hausdorff. How capable are these two? I'll share with you the highlights in just a bit, but suffice it to say that if you ever find yourself in a situation where you are on the other side of these two in a debate format, you'd better take a long, hard look at the position you're taking, because there's a good chance you're on the wrong side, and it will be indefensible. I don't agree with Murray on everything, but on this conflict, his vision is better than 20/20.

Sticking up for the anti-Zionists were two people very hostile to the state of Israel - MSNBC veteran and Hamas supporter Mehdi Hasan, and Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy, a left-wing Jew who developed his anti-Zionist views covering conflicts with Palestinians for the left-wing paper. Going into the debate, the audience was pre-polled on the question. In a 61-30% split, the audience was predisposed to believe that being anti-Zionist was being antisemitic. Here is the opening remarks by Murray, who gave a master class at how to do this. (Warning, there is a quotation by Murray that is cited in order to bolster his argument that contains two usages of the F-word.)



To give you a sense for how completely dominant Murray was during this debate, here is a highlight reel of his best moments. 



Yes, it pretty much went on like this all night. There was one particular exchange where Hasan and Levy tried to make a point, and Murray responded with such a rhetorical thumping that the audience knew the debate had all but ended at that point. 



Murray, of course, has developed quite a profile of notoriety through viral clips in venues like this, as well as television interview appearances, oftentimes with hostile interlocutors. His partner, Natasha Hausdorff, was no slouch in this debate. She'll get overshadowed over the course of time in online discussions about this debate, but she was exceptional in her own right. At one point, Mehdi Hasan tried to excerpt just a few words from former UK Prime Minister Lord Arthur Balfour as a quote, totally out of context, branding him as a "card-carrying antisemite." Hausdorff came back at him in response with the receipts, including the entire quote, not the cherrypicked one by Hasan. 




If you get caught playing fast and loose with a citation in order to try to make your point, your credibility is gone with the debate audience, and you might as well beat the traffic home and walk off the stage. But being antisemitic is so fulfilling, I guess, that Hasan doesn't seem to mind getting his rear end kicked all over Canada. Hausdorff got the job of mopping up at the end. Here's her closing statement. 



The audience responded very favorably to the case made by Murray and Hausdorff, with the post-debate poll showing a margin of 66-34. The spread went from 22 to 32 points, a five-point swing. It's encouraging that much movement can be made once people hear the argument presented with clarity. 

A lot of pundits are beginning to hedge their bets, predicting that Biden will probably beat expectations at the debate, of course presuming the debate actually happens, and the President will perform better than his recent two weeks would indicate. But can anyone honestly believe that they're going to get anything approaching clarity on Israel from Joe Biden? And for that matter, clarity on anything without a teleprompter with which to read?  

The debate I want to see isn't Trump vs. Biden. What I want to see is Douglas Murray versus Joe Biden. AI, please make that so.