The main political event of this week in the United States was the first round of debates between the current President of the country Joe Biden and the former head of state Donald Trump, who is vying for a return to the White House. Among other topics, the candidates for the highest state office in America discussed sports – but only in a manner that infuriated many experts and viewers.
For 81-year-old Biden, who has recently repeatedly found himself in situations that testified to his inexorable decrepitude, it was a matter of honor to endure an hour and a half debate with an opponent who, although only three years younger, was much more energetic. To do this, the US President cleared his schedule as much as possible for more than a week and retired to his country residence at Camp David, where, together with numerous assistants, he studied the materiel and at the same time rested before the upcoming stress.
Nevertheless, the question of the ability of the far from young candidates for the presidential post to cope with the work in the coming four years, of course, arose during the debates – about an hour and a quarter after the start of the debates. And in response to it, Trump said that he successfully passed the tests of cognitive abilities and physical readiness: “I showed a 100% result, we published it. I would like to see how my opponent passes a similar test. At least one, the simplest one. But he will not be able to pass the first five questions.”
Trump followed up by saying that he recently won two club golf championships. And he emphasized that these were full-fledged tournaments, not veterans'. “To do this, you definitely need to be pretty smart and be able to hit the ball a long distance,” Trump stated and added, nodding towards Biden. “And he won't hit it even 50 yards.”
This remark made “Sleepy Joe,” as Trump has repeatedly called the current US President, suddenly perk up. “When I was vice president, I lowered my handicap to six. I already told you, we can play, but only if you carry the bag of clubs yourself. Can you?” – with these words, Biden, it seemed, even winked at his predecessor in the White House, but perhaps it was a nervous tic.
Trump responded to this statement with barely suppressed laughter. “This is the biggest lie that has been told today,” he said cheerfully. Biden decided to backtrack on this: “Okay, I had a handicap of eight.” He tried to say something else, but couldn’t cope with the pronunciation of the words, which Trump skillfully took advantage of: “I saw your equipment. Let’s not act like children.” The last word remains with the current president: “You are behaving like a child.”
A little educational program. The concept of a “handicap” in golf is a kind of rating: the lower it is, the better. You are allowed to carry a maximum of 14 clubs in a golf bag, usually the player has exactly the same number or close to it, which is why the entire set weighs 15 kilograms. During a game that lasts about four hours on a standard course, the bag is either attached to an electric cart or to a manual one mini-cart, however, at serious tournaments it is prohibited to use these devices: the clubs are carried across the field either by the athlete himself or by his assistant (caddie).
< br>Be that as it may, it is unlikely that a dispute over who plays better golf could answer the question of whether the contenders for the presidency of the United States are ready to bear their most important burden. Rather, what was important here were visual observations and the adequacy of everyone’s statements, and here, according to absolutely all experts, including representatives of the Democratic Party, which Biden represents, Trump won the debate by one wicket. He was clear in his formulations and adequate in his reactions, and although the current president did not try to sit on the missing chair, as during his visit to France to celebrate the day of the Allied landing in Normandy, and did not play “freeze”, as during the recent concert on the eve of Emancipation Day, but regularly closed his eyes, as if falling asleep, and got confused in his words.
The current and former American presidents spent several minutes arguing over the topic of golf, which caused an angry reaction from many experts and spectators.
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“The country is experiencing a crisis of rising food prices. The country is experiencing a crisis of illegal immigration. The country is faced with a lot of questions about the very existence of democracy in the future. And at the same time, during the debates, the candidates are squabbling about their success in golf. Is this normal?”, a national TV channel analyst asks rhetorically.
“The useless and insult-filled debate between the two oldest candidates to ever run for president has degenerated into a squabble over golf skills,” a Fox TV channel journalist stated. Many of the comments on YouTube under videos of Biden and Trump arguing are in a similar tone.
Well, the second round of debates between the candidates will not take place anytime soon – only on September 10. There is time to prepare – for another discussion of the most important problems for the country, and for trash talk, and you can even play a round of golf. Unless Biden's party decides to remove him from the race, of course. There has already been talk of this after the current president's disastrous performance.
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