Both candidates were professional, well prepared, and seemed fairly quick on their feet. Each candidate had their own categories they did well in.
On Coronavirus, Trump seemed to have a more practical plan than Joe, accounting for economic and societal impacts. Joe’s plan seemed more theoretical than practical. While Trump briefly talked about PPE, including goggles, I wish he was a little more specific, including discussion on potential PPE mandates.
On National Security, I gave Trump a small edge because he talked about the hundreds of billions of dollars NATO is now paying for their own defense and that he has maintained tough sanctions on Russia. Further, Trump’s relationship with North Korea and his point about what Obama predicted about future conflict with North Korea should have won some points for his side. Biden made the point there would be a price to pay for our rivals interferring with our elections. However, Trump responded along the lines that Russia is more in Biden’s camp than his. Biden won points on tax returns.
On American family and the economy, Biden was more personable with his specific answers towards well defined voter demographics, possibly giving him the edge in this category. While Joe gets credit for talking about specifics regarding healthcare plan costs, some may question why more costs are necessary for certain groups of people. Trump pressed Biden on immigration with benefits to immigrants and which administration built the cages. Joe did not answer Trump, but talked about children still separated by their families. Trump could have been a little more prepared and talked more in detail why separations happened in the first place.
On Race, Joe gets the edge again with his specific demographic talk. Trump discussed in broad terms all the programs he approved for minorities and how well minorities performed economically under his administration. It felt sort of like someone offering the give their kid twenty bucks to leave them alone instead of spending time with them. While Joe was more personable and specific, he still was not entirely convincing that he personally cared about that demographic because he seemed formulaic by his discussing a targeted democraphic instead of using a name. Trump also did discuss Joe’s 47 years in political office and not achieving much, but Trump did not find a way to “Nail the jello to the wall” with that.
On Climate change, Trump gets a decisive nod on Joe’s statements as much as his own. Sure, Trump mentioned improvements in air quality and did point out that the Paris Accord was front loaded with the United States on the hook for most of the expenses while China’s and Russia’s obligations where back loaded before their obligations kicked in, say starting in 2030 for China, if I recall correctly. The big kuhuna was Joe’s “Zero emissions by 2025”, although he later modified that something less draconian. Joe’s statement was pounced on by Trump by his pointed out which state’s economy would be adversly afffected by Joe’s zero emissions policy. Also noteworthy is how ridicolous the Paris Accord was because the US has to pay for emissions now and by the time China and Russia’s turn comes up we’ll be at zero emissions? Kind of pokes a hole in what the climate change argument by the Left is really about, in my opinion.
On leadership, I gave Trump the edge for his “Success will bring us together” statement. Joe’s closing statement was too trite, something we always hear, but something never achieved. I wish Trump added a little more detail with his statement by briefly decribing the process that “Success will bring us together” was going to be achieved.
Overall, Trump massively improved his debate performance by being more prepared, professional, and more responsive to the debate format. Even beyond Trump’s winning the debate overall, I believe he helped sway more undecided voters to his camp than Joe did.