In the wake of the Commission on Presidential Debates' decision to move the debate between Joe Biden and the Superspreader to a virtual meeting, the President has decreed that he will not participate in the debate. In actuality, this may be the best news that we have seen in a long time. Not only does this save the American public from having to endure another 90 minutes of incivility and rudeness, but it also takes away a large television audience from the GOP when the party is fighting for its life in the downballot races.

After Cleveland, Nobody Really Wants to Be Subjected to Another Debate

What Donald Trump does not understand is that the national reaction to his skipping the second debate would be a large-scale sigh of relief. He has reached the point where 60% of the country has tuned out and does not want to hear what he has to say. The other 40% can just watch him yuck it up with Judge Jeannie and Sean Hannity. As usual, Biden has hit his mark in responding to the latest from Trump. He has agreed to participate in the debate notwithstanding the President's disgraceful act from the last debate. Now, Biden looks tough enough to deal with Trump while the President appears to be afraid of the virtual format. Would be dictators do not look very good when the view of them is their back as they are storming out of a virtual room.

Trump's attitude has always been that he is doing the American public a favor by acting like an uncouth boor in front of a television audience for 90 minutes. He has pulled this trick in the 2016, and used it to manipulate the debate formats to his advantage. The difference here is that is not a Republican primary, and he is not dealing with Fox News. Instead, he is dealing with a nonpartisan commission that would quite frankly be relieved if he did not show up for a second horror show. The only person who realizes that he has no leverage is Trump himself. In many ways, this is like his business career, where he bids against himself for the privilege of self-ruin.

Joe Biden should show up for a national town hall even if Donald Trump will not. The networks should give him a national television audience, so he can continue with his positive message that has already won him rave reviews. Biden's Gettysburg speech was well-received by many quarters of the country. The more he can stay on that message without being sullied by the stench of Trump, the more he is moving into landslide mode. By skipping the debate, Trump is actually doing a favor for Biden, letting him control his own message. At this point, Biden does not really need to dirty his hands with a candidate who is behind by double-digits and is self-destructing on a daily basis.

The Country Is Voting Now and Trump Is Running Out of Time

By the time that Trump does the country a favor again by "doing the debates," more than half of the votes in the election will have already been cast. He will have lost his last chance to try to knock Biden down if he ever could have done that in the first place. At this point, the only thing that Trump has to reach the country with his campaign flat-broke are his Twitter feed and Fox News. That is a recipe for a Jimmy Carter-like defeat in November.

Maybe it is the steroids talking, but we think that Trump is ducking a format in which he would have gotten utterly crushed in the first place. Trump's national town hall meeting was a disaster. With voters even more free to challenge him over Zoom, Trump would look very small on screen. We get why Trump is bailing on the debate. However, we think the best approach when he blusters and threatens is to show him the way to the exit. The country knows exactly who Donald Trump is and what he stands for, and the fewer opportunities that he has to "communicate" with the American public the better. The Commission should simply respond to his threat with this rejoinder: "Is that your final answer, Sir?" Then, the country can sit back on election day and watch as Trump pulls the entire Republican Party down with him.