The Voters Watching the Debate With a Hand Over Their Eyes

Jay Bodenstein, a lifelong Democrat who lives in the Villages retirement community in Florida, plans to sit down this week for a night of television he regards with terror.

He will not be watching a horror movie. He’ll be watching the debate between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.

“I’m fearful, I really am,” Mr. Bodenstein, 76, said. People of his and Mr. Biden’s age (81) can easily misspeak or make mistakes, he said, and he worries a slip-up on the debate stage — or even just a moment of thoughtful hesitation — could sink the president’s campaign.

“I think he could possibly lose the election, which would be tragic,” Mr. Bodenstein said, adding that he wished the men weren’t debating at all.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden will meet for the first time since 2020 in a high-stakes clash with the rare power to jolt a contentious general election campaign just as it ramps up.

But many Democrats, as well as independent and Republican voters who are opposed to Mr. Trump, are feeling not so much “rah-rah” as they are a more anxious “ruh-roh.” After eight years of watching Mr. Trump’s caustic and unpredictable debate performances against Mr. Biden and Hillary Clinton — and as Mr. Biden fights doubts about his age after a slurry of sometimes deceptively edited videos — some of them are just plain scared about what will happen at a moment when the stakes feel astronomical.