Reactions and analysis

"Other presidents have stumbled in debates before, but not the way Biden did Thursday night," analyzes the Washington Post: "His primary goal was to dispel doubts that he is too old and too frail to lead the country for another four years. Instead, he reinforced those doubts." Over the course of the evening, Biden's performance had improved and he had won many substantive arguments - but first impressions count, and for Biden they were worse than many Democrats had feared.

The New York Times reports of a "party in panic": "Democrats who have defended the president against his doubters for months - including members of his administration - exchanged frantic phone calls and text messages within minutes of the debate's start as it became clear that Biden was not at his best." The newspaper quotes a Democratic strategist as saying that Biden had a bubbling well of affection in the party. That well has now dried up. Mark Buell, a prominent donor to Biden and the Democratic Party, told the Times after the debate that the president needs to think carefully about whether he is the best person for the nomination. Buell asked if they had the time to put another candidate in the race.

After the debate, many commentators and columnists expressed their shock and called on Biden to reconsider his candidacy. Among them is Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who has a fundamentally positive view of Biden. In his column, he wrote that Biden has been a friend since they traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan together after September 11. That's why he says it all with great sadness: "I can't remember a more heartbreaking moment in a US presidential campaign in my lifetime. This moment revealed that Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, does not deserve to run for re-election." Voters deserve an open process to find a Democratic presidential candidate who can unite party and country, who offers what neither candidate has offered: "A compelling description of where the world is right now, and a compelling vision for what America can and must do to continue to lead it - morally, economically and diplomatically."

Politico columnist Jonathan Martin quotes leading Democrats as saying that Biden's bet on an early debate to invalidate the constant questions about his age had not only backfired, but had caused damage that could prove irreversible: "The president had fully confirmed doubts about his fitness in the first 30 minutes of the debate."  Martin predicts that the President is facing a difficult summer with his own party. However, the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. They had remained silent for three and a half years and were now reaping the storm. According to Martin's assessment, Biden would have to withdraw voluntarily so that another candidate could be elected at the party convention in Chicago: "There is no indication, even after former Biden staffers criticized his performance on television Thursday, that he will end his half-century career in politics with a humiliating exit in the middle of the campaign."

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