LogFAQs > #945277399

All in all -- it was an entertaining bout, although it didn't really address many hard issues. However, it did limit the candidates' ability to fall back on canned talking points (which are also of little to no value when it comes to evaluating candidates).

At the start of the debate, Trump was oddly subdued and collected. Although he was keeping his composure even more than Biden, that kind of an approach just doesn't work. That would have let Biden stay on carefully rehearsed talking points for most of the night where he'd have more control over his presentation. One of Biden's big selling points is his contrast to Trump in terms of image, whereas taking him to the ground hurts Biden's image far more than it hurts Trump (especially considering that they were taking turns heckling each other).

And while Biden let himself get rattled and sometimes inadvertently gave Trump ammunition, he also sometimes played Trump by provoking Trump into interrupting him during harder questions. By contrast, there was a moment early on when Trump was fumbling with an answer and Biden knew enough to just sit back and smile. When Biden was put into that same spot on occasion, Trump got him out of it. Conversely, there were a few moments when Trump successfully derailed the discussion.

The difference between Biden and Hillary is that Biden was willing to directly engage Trump whereas Hillary just tried to move back to her canned talking points. As such, she managed to stay on point a lot better than Biden. The fact that Biden was engaging more allowed Trump to take the conversation into what he wanted to talk about.

Otherwise the debate was a lot of the candidates asking each other why they hadn't done something. Biden attacked Trump's past almost-four years, while Trump criticized the almost 50 years Biden has been in some political office. Very safe, very standard mudslinging. The only real issue is that Biden kept trying to blame Trump for the recession caused by lockdowns resulting from COVID when Biden himself *repeatedly* went on record in favor of lockdowns. Likewise, Biden criticized preventative measures like shutting down travel when it was happening. And the PPE supply was depleted partly while Biden was VP.

And both candidates managed to work in their planned hits. Biden brought up the recent tax claim (which Trump deflected by pointing out that Biden had a hand in creating that tax code). Trump managed to bring up the Hunter Biden allegations a few times, partly thanks to Biden's unforced error when he brought up his other son (and, instead of saying "my son Bo" -- which might have been to get people to have a more positive association with Hunter -- he simply said "my son," which allowed Trump to launch into the Hunter Biden allegations again and the fact that Biden fought back on them allowed Trump to keep at it).

And, because Trump rattled him, Biden accidentally started to talk about supporting the Green New Deal, which provoked an incredulous reaction from Chris Wallace who was surprised that Biden was publicly admitting his support for it. And, as others have pointed out in the past, the framework for his policy has some strong resemblance to the GND. The whole thing validates Trump's criticism that Biden is supporting fringe elements in the Democratic Party.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/20/joe-biden-has-endorsed-the-green-new-deal-in-all-but-name

As for who "won" in terms of influencing voters, NPR's undecided voter interviews kinda illustrates what Trump might have been going for:
"It moved it from maybe voting for one of them to definitely not voting for either,"
"I'm definitely not going to vote for Trump, but I can't say that Biden has won my vote completely either. So I really just want to throw up thinking about voting for either of them."
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918677460/only-a-few-undecided-voters-remain-did-the-debate-help-anyone-decide

Rather than win new supporters, it may have convinced people on the fence over voting for Biden (because they weren't pleased with Trump) to not vote at all >_>


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There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.