I've done classic debate in high school, and my career demanded the ability to make technical presentations and field hardball questions, so my standard is fairly high. I did not think this was a particularly stellar debate. Trump was on his toes and hit hard punches, although not necessarily on the specific topic under discussion. My perfectionist tendencies get annoyed with that, but Trump is a street fighter who picks his punches and I cannot gainsay him. He was watching Biden like a hawk, and didn't mind if his face projected deadly intent and disdain for the proceedings. As for Biden, I was actually surprised that he was able to hold it together as long as he did. But in his case, it was mostly platitude salad and mythical gaslighting. I couldn't tell if he believed his own gaslighting, or just didn't care what he threw out. His tendency to waver on target got more pronounced toward the end. On the whole, balancing style and content, I think Trump was more effective at punching, but that there was poor engagement with the debate questions. (Biden very conspicuously was losing his cool toward the end.)

What really surprised me was the reaction of the CNN panel at the end, a chorus of "O woe is us." Seasoned veteran Biden loyalists like Van Jones and David Axelrod declared it a disaster, and floated the idea that "Now is the time for Biden to consider stepping aside," because he was so clearly past his shelf life. One observer said basically, "Who is this Joe Biden? We were told he was going to save the world, and he is just miserable. Somebody in the Democrat Party has been lying to us and needs to be held to account." The general sentiment was that there was no way that Biden could pull a victory out of this header. Watching this dismayed reaction, commiseration, and self-deluded myth-making was more engrossing than the debate.

I don't think any of this was scripted. That's just a fantasy. Biden was carefully executing his talking points, so maybe you could say he was "scripted," but that is not the point. He was just continuing the "narrative." Trump was clearly operating as an impromptu speaker, exploiting the turn of events and the terrain. The panel at the end was a shocker, because I would not have expected such candor to be expressed to a national audience. They were oblivious to the fact they had an audience, and were all wrapped up in a group autopsy. I would have expected seasoned operatives, such as they were, to be more circumspect and elliptical in anything said publicly, if they had such deep-reaching misgivings. How does it help the Democrat cause to show the nation all the doubts and flaws? I've never seen the like.

Maybe Biden was just the copper penny in the fusebox.