Dina Mahmoud (London)
American experts and analysts agreed that there are many factors that gave yesterday’s debate between the two sides of the US presidential race exceptional importance, especially in light of the relative stability shown by opinion polls in the rates of voter support for each of them, with about four months remaining until the voting date.
The 90-minute debate is the first direct confrontation between Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump since September 29, 2020, when the two men engaged in a debate at the time, which preceded their competition in the presidential elections held in the same year, which led to Biden ousting Trump from the White House.
The Americans’ anticipation of the new debate between the two presidential candidates after all these years has added additional interest to Thursday’s debate, which is being organized by the prestigious CNN news network in its studios in Atlanta, to be the first of two debates, the second of which will be held on September 10, and broadcast by the ABC television network.
In addition, the Atlanta debate’s June 27 date makes it the earliest presidential debate the United States has seen since such verbal sparring became a hallmark of presidential election years decades ago.
Analytical circles indicate at the same time that the strict rules applied in the first debate between the two rivals, especially holding it without an audience, and preventing each of the participants in the debate from interrupting his opponent during the time allowed for him to speak, enhance the seriousness of the debate, and thus its potential effects on the electorate.
Although some believe that the debate will only affect swing voters, many American experts consider this confrontation a “rare opportunity” that may contribute to changing the course of the current competition between Biden and Trump, after it remained very close since the start of the election campaign, even despite the presence of events of the weight of the issuance of two criminal convictions against the Republican candidate and the son of his Democratic rival, in two separate cases.
Trump’s conviction in the case of falsifying accounting records only changed the results of opinion polls marginally, as confirmed by ABC News, in a report published on its website.
The echoes of Hunter Biden’s conviction for illegal possession of a firearm have now almost completely disappeared from the agenda of major and influential media outlets in the United States.
In the same context, an analysis of the average of the various opinion polls conducted in the United States, to extrapolate the popularity of the two sides of the November 5 election battle, indicates the existence of what appears to be an “actual tie” between them, especially if the traditional margin of error accompanying the results of such polls is taken into consideration.
Analysts also point out that the few months remaining until the election date are devoid of any major events that could push significant segments of Americans to change their current positions regarding the presidential candidates, including the two national conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as the ruling scheduled within weeks on Trump, in the case in which he was convicted criminally in late May.
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