How Biden Should Debate Trump - WSJ McGurn

[question everything]

Now, McGurn is as rabid as they come. Normally I don't bother to read his columns but the title intrigued me.

So, after going for most of the column how Trump is not, will not, be Sanders, and after pointing to Biden's "gaffes" and being angry, with supporters - like the one in Detroit when he told him he was full of shit - he concluded:

Mr. Trump will absolutely aim to get under Mr. Biden’s skin in hopes of provoking a game-changing gaffe. Say what you will about the president, no one doubts his ability to get under people’s skins.

There’s a better way forward for Mr. Biden than trying to out-Trump Mr. Trump, and it comes from his own past. His new campaign adviser, Jen O’Malley Dillon, could do worse than sit her client down to watch the 2012 vice presidential debate. Paul Ryan, running with Mr. Romney, was calm, measured and informed. The future House speaker made no real missteps in pressing a far better substantive case. Even so, Mr. Biden ran away with the debate.

Not by confusing anger for passion. But by dispatching Mr. Ryan with smiles and the slight condescension of a man who’d been in the business for many years. The Joe Biden of 2012 gave an impressive performance against his GOP rival.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-biden-should-debate-trump-11584398281 (subscription)