From New York Times opinion, this is the Ezra Klein Show. So I'm recording this a few hours after the debate ended.

It was a very bad night for Joe Biden, which I think makes it a quite bad night for democracy.

And well there's a lot to say in the debate.

I recorded a show with my colleagues over a matter of opinion, Ross Douthit,

I'm Michelle Coddle, and so a lot of what I can say is in there.

I will say that all of my thinking right now is provisional. The debate just ended. We will kind of see how things

emerge. One of the things that you'll hear me say here that I've been rethinking though

is that when I did my piece back low those many months ago, February I think it was, about why Democrats should think about replacing Joe Biden at the convention

Something I said in that piece was that Joe Biden is perfectly able to do the job of the president from everything I tell, but that he's not really able to

perform the job of the presidency. He's not up to the job of campaigning for the presidency.

And pretty shortly after I set that out, I felt like that line was a little bit wrong, and I feel more so now.

And what I mean by that is that communicating is part of the job of the president.

Instilling confidence in people that you can do the job is part of the job of the president.

Being able to tell the story of your administration

in a compelling way that pulls people into it,

that pulls people to your side,

that makes them understand what you are doing and why and why it is good for them.

That is part of the job of the president and the diminishment of Biden's skills as a communicator,

as a debater, his inability to project, what you need to project to make people confident,

is an inability to do part of the job of the president.

That isn't to say he's senile or any of the things that the more wild right-wing

accusation say about him, but it is to say that the very crisp and clear

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