For many, debates are often the most important events of presidential campaigns. 

Richard Nixon lost in large part because of his debate with JFK in September 1960. George H.W. Bush damaged his campaign in a debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot in 1992 because he looked at his watch while being addressed by a voter asking a question. Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s debate in June of this year was so disastrous that Biden ultimately dropped out of the presidential race. 

While there isn’t sufficient evidence to say that debates really change all that much in voters’ behavior nowadays, it’s clear that a debate can fundamentally shift the trajectory of an election. 

That said, the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on September 10 was hotly anticipated (or dreaded, depending on who you ask) because it was the first time we’d truly get to see these two candidates engage in a tête-à-tête discussion with each other … right?

Well … how do I put this lightly … this was less of a discussion of ideas and more of a game of peek-a-boo where the baby keeps falling for the same trick.

I went into this debate knowing that this would be more about partisan posturing than it would be an honest and truthful discussion where the candidates would genuinely get to discuss and debate their policy differences.

We know debates are now largely about vibes and optics rather than nuanced policy discussion, so with that in mind, how did each candidate fare?

Well, in the words of every Democratic operative after Joe Biden mumbled his way through a debate, Bi- oh I mean Trump had a bad night.

During the Democratic National Convention, among the variety of self-aggrandizing speeches, former presidents Obama and Clinton said two very poignant statements. Obama made fun of Trump’s crowd size fetish while Clinton asked voters to not count all of Trump’s lies but rather all the I’s.

While watching the debate devolve before my eyes, I couldn’t help but think of those speeches because it was clear that Harris was continuously baiting Trump on those two ideas during the debate. 

During the portion where she, on paper, should have struggled with the most, immigration,Harris played Trump like a violin. She asked the audience to attend a Trump rally to see people leaving early and all he had to do was not take the bait. Instead, he decides to sidestep the immigration issue and rant about how he has *cue Donald Trump voice* the biggest rallies. Just look at his numbers they’re so big so big; they’re so much bigger than Kamala’s. He has the best numbers.

Later on, after jabbing at him during the entire debate, she went after Trump for how much his rhetoric and platform is based on personal grievances rather than on the American people. After that line, it became clear that this entire debate and the willingness to let Trump flounder on stage was not just a happy coincidence, but rather a key rhetorical strategy that Harris sought to deliver on that stage.

That said, I won’t pretend that Harris was perfect either. Very often, when she was put under fire for the policies of the Biden administration such as the pullout from Afghanistan or the crisis at the southern border, she just sidestepped the issue which has left a lot of these concerns lingering. 

She didn’t even answer the first question, “Do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” When she gave this circling the coconut tree answer, I just sat in awe as to why she wasn’t answering the remarkably simple question that would have been incredibly easy to answer. 

By and large, by nearly every objective metric, Americans ARE doing better than they were four years ago because, by this time in 2020, we were still in the ravages of the pandemic with the only tangible benefit being that everyone finally got to understand why gamers like to stay inside all day.

As the debate went on, the moderators would press her on the notable failures of the Biden administration and most of the answers did not exist within the context of all that has been.

While my vote is set, for the undecided voter, this leaves numerous dangling questions about how Harris distances herself from Biden while also being the last person in the room for many of the administration’s biggest problems.

Harris is a new candidate for a wide berth of Americans and these wishy-washy answers are not winning over undecided voters.

Now, with that in mind, Trump took those issues and base boosted them so much that the Aussies could feel the vibrations. 

In pretty much every question, Trump rarely had a coherent response. Every single answer essentially boiled down to him saying that he was the best with all of the biggest numbers, it wasn’t his fault, and [insert problem here] wouldn’t have happened under him.

He was asked numerous times what specifically he would do and he responded by ranting and obfuscating and circling constantly back to immigration or Biden being the worst president in history.

During the entire debate, Trump at best gave in to all of his worst instincts and at worst showed just how unqualified he is to be the president of the most powerful country on earth with a complete lack of decorum or accountability. 

While Harris was delving into specific policy proposals and the problems with Trump’s policies and ideology, Trump ranted and raved, spitting lie after lie like Pinocchio after having one too many wine coolers.

Even down to body language, there couldn’t be a clearer winner. Trump was scowling and slouching the entire debate while Harris looked and acted presidential. She actually stood up straight, directly addressed and looked at her opponent, and, most importantly, she actually looked directly into the camera and addressed the American voter.

While Harris left something to be desired during the debate, she made Trump look like a rambling old fool who couldn’t even be trusted serving as the mayor of a retirement home.

Right from the start, Harris had a commanding presence of the night by walking over to Trump and shaking his hand, and it’s clear he wasn’t able to recover from that opening power play. He talked about false claims about Haitians eating cats, being praised by foreign dictators, and every grievance under the sun while Harris opened and ended with a message of hope, empathy, and opportunity.