I do think both candidates got across their main message. Biden's pitch for himself all along has been I'm Not Donald Trump. Trump's central theme is I Have No Dignity And No Respect For Anyone. Both communicated those central themes well.
San Seder notes in his immediate post-debate comments, "Joe Biden clearly did not go out there with the idea that I'm going to motivate the left to vote." I was annoyed by Biden's defensive responses to Trump's complaints about "socialzed medicine," the Green New Deal, and defunding the police. Post Debate Comments from Sam The Majority Report 09/29/2020:
Obviously a very significant portion of the voters would very much prefer to have a President who does a constant version of a Rush Limbaugh-style verbal "professional wrestling" show. That's been the case for four years, and lots of people enjoy the show. No doubt, there's something attractive about a grown man who seems to get away with doing and saying anything he wants with no accountability. But most people get beyond that sometime around the time they learn to walk. It was genuinely sad to see Chris Wallace, a FOX News anchor who is unusual on that network in occasionally acting like a real journalist, having to lecture the President of the United States on the most basic decorum and the need to exercise minimal self-control in a formal public setting.
Biden doesn't have an excess of that famous "charisma" that pundits typically associate with Presidents like Kennedy, Reagan, or Obama. But he clearly understands how government works and recognizes that people should reasonably expect government to address public problems, especially including deadly pandemics. He's also right about the stakes in the Supreme Court decision on the ACA/Obamacare that is weeks away from being handed down. If it eliminates the current law prohibiting insurance companies from exempting "preexisting conditions" - which is what Trump's administration is suing to do - not only will that degrade or eliminate many people's health insurance. But health insurers will immediately start treating even having had an asymptomatic COVID-19 infection as a preexisting condition. The last thing any responsible person would want to do is to create a disincentive for people to get tested for COVID because they would have to worry it would screw up their health insurance.
I try to resist the "theater criticism" approach to political debates. But Biden is actually a good debater. And his, "Will you shut up, man?" while Trump was trying to drown him out with babble is definitely an instant classic.
The TYT team of Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Michael Shure and John Iadarola weighed in afterwards, too. TYT Reacts: First 2020 Presidential Debate, Donald Trump vs Joe Biden 09/29/2020:
I've only seen one speech of Biden's live and in person, back in 2014. And that was before an only mildly-sympathetic audience, some of whom shouted in protest at the start over some Obama Administration policy. But I was impressed with his ability to read the audience and adjust his presentation midstream in response. That ability helps make him a good debater, and that came across on Tuesday. He did have a minor one of his famous "gaffes" near the end, where he says, as Sam Seder describes it, the Green New Deal would pay for itself but I'm against it.
While Trump may not be especially coherent or consistent, it's not easy to go up against someone who tries to conduct a very serious public debate like a drunken bully at a bar. Given my relatively low level of expectations for Biden, I would say he pulled it off well. Including the digs at Trump hiding in the bunker!
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