The major failure of President Joe Biden’s debate performance against former President Donald Trump on Thursday is quite basic — namely, that Biden’s frailty was on sustained display in a manner that no aides could hide or whitewash. And it was a frailty so stark that it has made even some of Biden’s most ardent opponents uncomfortable.

Trump was reliably erratic but appeared far more lucid, cogent, and easier to understand than his Democratic opponent. Yes, Trump often ignored the question he was asked, instead inventing questions of his own to then answer. Yes, he offered a number of falsehoods and absurd embellishments.

Ultimately, however, Trump seemed to know where he was and what he wanted to say and was able to say it. Biden did not. The president had some positive moments, such as when he robustly pushed back against Trump’s weak play to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s false narrative that resisting his war on Ukraine is a recipe for nuclear war.

Yet for most of the debate Biden was patently uncertain as to what he wanted to say and how to articulate effectively. His answers were often a hodgepodge of substance, half-truths, and excess gibberish. When not speaking, Biden’s person appeared almost ominous. He seemed held in a kind of ghostly stasis or limbo, waiting to be drawn back to the debate stage or to simply collapse. Biden is the president, so I do not say that lightly or happily. I watched the debate with journalists and foreign diplomats, all were deeply uncomfortable with Biden’s fragility.

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That discomfort will surely translate into homes across the nation. Trump is a liar of the highest order, believing his mirror to be the only moral compass for the national interest. But he at least seemed alive, he at least seemed capable of making a decision in crisis and handling the basic affairs of state. In contrast, Biden seemed to be a ghost and not a Shakespearean one.

Choosing between a ghost and a narcissist, how many families will trust the ghost to better keep their families safe and the economy growing?