After watching the presidential debate Tuesday night, we were underwhelmed. There was no aggressive off-topic bickering and we don’t even know who has a better golf swing.

But it was a lot to take in. There are a few different ways to look at that 90 minute debacle that we’ll explore here: Whether the candidate answered the question, how they addressed their own reputations and (for fun) who was the most out-of-pocket.

Just answer the question

The moderators of this debate did well in a few areas. They were more aggressive in actively fact-checking the candidates, which was refreshing, but they also developed questions that are relevant to what’s going on in the country and in the world.

In general, Vice President Kamala Harris was more effective in actually answering the questions presented to her. Presenting her plan to boost the economy with specific tax credits, her interest in reinstating the practices of Roe v. Wade and a two-state solution in the Middle East.

While she answered the question about her position on fracking, explaining that she is not going to ban it, her answer was most likely unsatisfactory to both of the interest groups she was trying to appeal to.

Environmentalists wouldn’t appreciate her unwillingness to ban the practice, but she wasn’t firm enough on keeping it to appeal to the pro-fracking traditional energy faction.

But that pales in comparison to former President Donald Trump’s performance. He answered every question with concise, clear — nope. Just kidding. If he didn’t have an answer he wanted to share, Trump resorted to fear mongering about immigrants “pouring in” from the
Southern border.

He did this for nearly every question, including those about the Israel-Hamas war, contention over his loss in 2020, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and the economy.

Resolving their reputations

Trump and Harris were both confronted by questions about their policy and leadership history — Harris for recent changes to her policy positions on things like fracking and the Southern border, and Trump to see if he had any regrets for the way the Jan. 6 insurrection played out, along with his recent comments about losing the 2020 election “by a whisker.”

Trump failed to answer whether he had any regrets about the insurrection, redirecting to immigration, and gave multiple conflicting answers to his contentious-but-confirmed loss in 2020 — also redirecting to immigration (see a theme yet?).

If there was a message Trump was trying to convey here, it got lost somewhere between his brain and his mouth. But given his almost total lack of direct answers to policy questions, it’s questionable whether he had one in the first place.

Harris was prone to using a lot of platitudes. The Democrats right now are experiencing a surge of energy and new identity as the “party of joy” that she was inclined to play on. She made a habit of pointing out she grew up middle class, and repeated her plans for the economy on occasions where it wasn’t the topic of discussion.

Sometimes those keyword statements got in the way of actually conveying a message; and rather than explain her stance on the Southern border, she blamed Trump for sabotaging the formerly bipartisan bill that would have made some changes.

Most out-of-pocket

Like most of American politics in the 21st century, there are moments where we laugh so we don’t cry. But there were a few highlights from the debate:

Harris: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people … and clearly he’s having a very difficult time processing that.”

Trump: “In Springfield (Ohio), they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Trump: “Our country has gone to hell.”

Trump: “Wait a minute, I’m talking now. Does that sound familiar?”

Trump: “I have concepts of a plan.”

Trump: “She’s going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was gonna send her a MAGA hat.”

Trump: “She’s a Marxist ... her father is a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well.”

Trump: “Her boss, if you can call him a boss, he spends all his time at the beach.”

Harris: “And this ...” she bit her tongue for a few seconds, “ ... former president.”

Trump: “She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”

Harris: “I’m going to actually do something really unusual, and I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies, because it’s a really interesting thing to watch.”

By the numbers:

Trump interrupted the moderators more than 20 times, Harris - five

Harris called back to being raised middle class four times

Trump said positive things about dictators … too many times (six, exactly)

Trump equated Harris to Biden four times

Harris branded herself as a prosecutor at least three times

Final Thoughts

At 11 p.m on a weekday, our brains were struggling to process all the information that had been thrown our way. Coming out on the other side, it’s safe to say both sides have very strong views on topics and both want to make policy changes if elected into office.

Despite Trump constantly circling back to the topic of immigration like a vulture lost in a desert, he did make good points when it came to how the country has been handling the border and their foreign policy involvement. Harris, on the other hand, spoke strongly on healthcare and uplifting the middle class, though there were moments she tended to repeat the “free money for struggling groups” monologue in places it wasn’t appropriate.

Even among the serious discussions, the American people still managed to find humor in it all. We found much joy in seeing “THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS” trending on X the morning after, as well as the jokes on TikTok about what Harris really wanted to called Trump during her pause. Even in the heaviness and tension of it all, we feel like we can always rely on the American people to bring crude optimism to the abysmal.

Overall, the debate wasn’t perfect, but it also wasn’t as bad as we expected.

Editorial: Not as bad as we thought?

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