Before they go on stage, presidential campaigns have mock debate prep in which someone has to play the role of their opponent. For example, Obama’s Mitt Romney stand-in was John F. Kerry. Both are wealthy faux patrician men who spent some time in Massachusetts and are both poor debaters who talk too much and explain even more.

But getting a Trump stand-in has been a problem. How much of a problem? This is Bob Bauer, Biden’s campaign attorney, who also fills the role of Trump.

Having a campaign attorney stand-in is a little bit odd. But not so odd for a campaign whose biggest secret is that its number one is out of it. As a campaign attorney, Bob can be trusted to keep that under wraps.

Does he have Trump’s style and energy? Not remotely. But it’s not as if Biden is really going head-to-head with Trump. His job will be to stay on track and recite existing talking points in response to questions that will be passed along and even if they aren’t are easy enough to guess.

Abortion. Trans rights. Global Warming. Gaza. The border. The economy.

Still, Bob seems like a poor stand-in. Then again Hillary’s Trump stand-in was Philippe Reines. And while
Philippe had an aggressive reputation, he strikes me as being far short of what Hillary needed to practice against.

It’s hard to get a good Trump stand-in.