It’s Wednesday, the Day After.^ᴛᴍ Did you watch the first presidential election debate between Trump and Biden? I watched the whole chaotic thing.

We were promised a debate between two presidential contenders and instead got a heated spat between the Lee brothers: Bigly and Ugly. It wasn’t so much a debate as it was a smack-down between two egos that clearly hate each other.

Chris Wallace is partly to blame for that, though. In his role as moderator, he lost control of the “discussion” several times as both Trump and Biden (but mostly Trump) broke the agreed protocol of allowing two minutes of uninterrupted answers. It also became obvious as the night went on that Wallace did not like Trump and seemed to help Biden, even laughing with Joe at one point about losing their train of thought. Not a good look.

The biggest surprise of the night was that Biden, for the most part, seemed in control of his faculties, was mostly coherent in his answers, delivered rapid responses to several Trump accusations and didn’t show any of the “sundowning” that so many were concerned about. (I will say that at one point the camera caught Biden looking at Wallace with what seemed to be bulging black eyes, as though he didn’t know what was happening. It was brief, but it startled me.)

Generally, Biden held his own, which is a win for him. He tried to create empathy with viewers, looking directly into the camera, gesturing with his hand and addressing them directly. Trump never looked at a camera for more than a second.

Biden did fail on a question from Wallace about whether he had called the Democrat mayor of Portland or governor of Oregon to help quell the rioting. Biden said that he was no longer in elected office, which is a very weak answer. He accrued power and influence over the years, he’s still called Mr. Vice-President and, if he made a call and told those officials to stop the violence, his party members would at least have to listen.

Biden also tried to create a moment of righteous indignation in reference to Trump allegedly calling members of the military “losers” and tying that to his son, Beau, a military veteran who died of cancer in 2015. It failed when Trump pivoted and told Biden he was referring to his other son, Hunter, who was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for testing positive for cocaine.

While both Trump and Biden were disrespectful to each other, Biden’s seemed to be more of the personal insult variety. He referred to Trump as “this clown.” At another point, when Trump was pressing him on whether he supported packing the Supreme Court, Biden jabbed back with, “Will you shut up, man! … This is so unpresidential. … Keep yapping, man.” He also said, “You’re the worst president America has ever had.”

For his part, Trump was in attack mode all night and rarely gave Biden an uninterrupted two minutes of speaking time. He defended his record and immediately contradicted Biden’s claims, which repeatedly used debunked narratives to undermine Trump’s record.

For instance, Biden accused Trump of saying there were “people that were very fine people, on both sides” during a rally in Charlottesville where a neo-Nazi killed a woman by driving his car into a crowd of counter-protesters. That comment has been debunked again and again as taken out of context.

Trump did talk about his record of appointing judges, including 128 that Obama and Biden left unfilled. He will have appointed nearly 300 judges and have had three SCOTUS justices confirmed by the end of his first term. That has to be both unusual and some kind of record.

He talked about his administration’s response to the Chinese Lung Pox and the speed at which they are developing a vaccine. He talked of the economy and the many records it set before being flattened by the Asian Contagion, and the records it is now setting as it begins to recover.

He also insulted Biden twice by my count. The first was when Biden, in reference to the Kung Flu, said, “A lot of people died and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker.” Trump jumped on that and told Biden, “You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class. Don’t ever use the word ‘smart’ with me. Don’t ever use that word.” Ouch.

The second was when Trump defended his approach to the pandemic and said “we have done great job.” He then addressed Biden and said, “But I tell you, Joe, you could never have done the job we’ve done. You don’t have it in your blood.” That left a mark, too.

In the final assessment of this first debate, I don’t think either Biden or Trump picked up new voters. While I’ve come to appreciate Trump punching back “twice as hard,” tonight it came across as rude. I think that will turn some people off. Don’t get me wrong; I like a good counterpunch and many of Biden’s assertions deserved one. But not every response has to be combative. Let the data speak for itself. There’s still a place for civility and order and tradition in a forum like a nationally televised presidential debate.

I call it a draw, which is good for Biden, but not for the president.

[Image: Screengrab of C-SPAN video feed]