These weren’t the Lincoln-Douglas debates. They weren’t Kennedy-Nixon. If those were graded ‘A’, then this was ‘C-minus’, at best. Both candidates filled the air with hyperbole. Trump led the way, as usual, calling everything he did ‘the best ever’, and everything Biden did ‘the worst’. He doesn’t favour shades of grey.
The President looked dreadful and sounded hoarse.
Biden responded in kind. He was right to emphasise Trump’s hours of silence during the 6 January attack on the Capitol. But he didn’t stop there. He went on to repeat what he surely knows is a lie about Trump’s comments after Charlottesville. And he kept going, trying to link Trump directly neo-Nazis.
It could have been worse. The CNN format was far better than previous debates. Keep it. Ditch the audience and allow only one mic at a time. The moderators’ questions were fair and tackled the big topics, as they should have. The debate would have been more informative if each candidate had time for a second rebuttal. That would have encouraged more debate over several major issues.........