#Biden’s Supreme cop-out and other commentary

At Tuesday’s debate, Joe Biden refused to say if he backed expanding the Supreme Court and packing it with Democrats, note the editors of National Review. “Whatever position I take,” dodged Biden, “that will become the issue.” It was “nothing short of remarkable.” The ex-veep is running for president, after all, and agreed to a debate in which he “was ­expected to take positions.” Having to do so isn’t “a bug within the system but a feature.” Americans deserve to know whether he supports “what would be the most radical reform” to government since World War II. The question requires a “reflexive, emphatic, uncomplicated answer.” So, “yes or no, Joe? There’s no room here for malarkey.”

Election watch: Don’t Cancel the Debates

Scores of commentators have advised canceling the remaining debates, but there is “a reason not to kill off a key feature of modern presidential politics, even if in the wake of Tuesday night, it may seem like a mercy killing,” argues Jeff Greenfield at Politico. The next presidential square-off, on Oct. 15, is a town hall, a format that “has provided some of the more memorable debate moments: Bill Clinton walking into the audience to ask a woman to describe her concerns; President George H.W. Bush glancing impatiently at his watch; Al Gore striding over to ‘invade’ ­George W. Bush’s space in 2000.” Here, if President Trump and Joe Biden “begin bickering,” the moderator can remind them “there are real people waiting to ask their questions.” It just might work: Even the worst “family arguments sometimes cease when the neighbors arrive.”

Legal analyst: James Comey Is Corrupt

“Fired FBI Director James Comey needs immediate medical attention,” snarks Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett. “He suffers from either acute ­amnesia or debilitating dementia.” At a Senate hearing Wednesday on the FBI Russia-collusion probe and the “abuse of the surveillance process” on his watch, Comey “claimed to know nothing about everything.” He was “an empty suit at the helm of one of the most important investigations in American modern history.” He signed spying warrants based on uncorroborated ­evidence, swearing under oath that it was “true and verified” when it wasn’t — but he claims he had “no independent knowledge.” The only “reasonable” conclusion: “James Comey is corrupt.” His bout of amnesia is “nothing but a cleverly contrived act to avoid taking responsibility for his malign acts.”

Economist: Unbundling Comes to Journalism

Fired from New York magazine for his heterodox opinions, Andrew Sullivan “turned to Substack, a platform that lets authors publish and monetize a newsletter or sell stand-alone content directly to readers,” Allison Schrager observes at City Journal — and he says he is earning more this way. Matt Taibbi similarly left Rolling Stone “to write a paid newsletter, because he wanted more independence,” while chef Alison Roman opted for Substack after coming under fire at The New York Times for supposed insensitivity. It’s all “part of the growing unbundled economy,” much like cutting the cable to rely on streaming TV services. Large-scale issues remain but might be solved by “bundled newsletters and podcasts.” Watch carefully, as media changes “may be the canary in the coal mine, telling us what’s in store for the rest of the economy.”

Teacher: Remote Learning Is a Disaster

“Virtual learning still presents significant challenges for students, parents and educators,” Auguste Meyrat wails at The Federalist. Even with motivated students, the “experience is awkward and incomplete. With unmotivated students, it’s nearly impossible.” Parents face “the hard choice” of either “becoming de facto full-time teachers or leaving the children to fend for themselves.” Don’t believe the kids are fine: “As this school year begins, many teachers are seeing in their students a serious regression both in academic progress and in behavior,” far worse than the usual summer lag. And since the coronavirus threat to children is minimal to nonexistent, “parents need to put pressure on educational and ­political leaders to reopen schools before the very real and profound damage . . . becomes permanent.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board