This is John Batchelor, conversation with my good friend and colleague Gregory Coppley, editor and publisher of Defense and Foreign Affairs,

imagining, speculating, analyzing how the Kremlin, how the forbidden city see the presentation by the

president during the debate, the uneven presentation, and what is to be done.

Gregory speaks specifically of how Moscow sees this as an advantage.

Is Gregory Coppley, a different publisher of Defense and Foreign Affairs, more tonight especially on

China, Tehran, Pyongyang, our adversaries and our allies, witnessing the President's uneven performance.

More of this tonight.

Well, the world looks at the United States

in an election year, knowing they if the rest of the world is going to do

anything you do it in an election year so that the United States can't punish you because

it's preoccupied with its issues at home. That goes double when the United States

is messing up its situation at home in a sense and that's how the world sees it. Clearly, as far as the People's Republic of

China and Moscow are concerned, they in particular see that they have a breathing space while the US is absolutely

obsessed with its own internal problems. A lot of them I think are concerned however that this is going to guarantee a Trump administration

in 2025 as it now seems to be said on by the polls.

Certainly the Russians are not unhappy about that because they see that as being a positive outcome because it will probably lead to a

negotiated settlement with the Ukraine conflict.