It is highly unlikely at this point that the U.S. presidential elections could be decided by positions laid out in a debate. If anything, this campaign, solidly anchored in post-truth, only brings confirmation that there is no dialectical solution to Trumpism (just as there was no such solution in the courts). Almost half the country doesn’t consider his coup attempt disqualifying, nor his serial lying (now amplified by the new “Disinformation Minister,” Elon Musk).

Thus, it might be the case that in the game of chasing the vanishingly small group of “undecideds,” who might be crucial in tipping the scales, superficial-level perceptions could turn out to be the important ones – if not to change anyone’s opinion, then at least to motivate turnout, which could prove decisive (especially in the handful of swing states where the game will be played).

Against the background of the two candidates that the polls keep showing as seemingly inescapably neck-and-neck, one of the remaining potential variables could have been a catastrophic debate performance by Kamala Harris, which would have exposed her as incompetent or incapable of handling the man who had, after all, managed to defeat a seasoned politician like Hillary Clinton.

Her primary goal in the debate, watched in prime time by 70 million Americans, was........

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