Nate Cohn Profile picture
chief political analyst, @nytimes. writing about elections, public opinion and demographics for @UpshotNYT. polling and needling. PNW expat.

Sep 30, 2020, 6 tweets

What a mess. There was no winner, certainly not the United States. And that makes Biden the winner. He's the frontrunner. It's Trump who needed the win, and I think most anyone would agree, as Chris Wallace said, that the president was largely responsible for the debate.

I don't think Biden was terribly strong, especially after the first half hour. He certainly didn't dispel concerns about age or something. But as I think back on the debate, I can't really think of any clip that's going to reflect too badly on Biden.

On the other hand, I can think of several clips that Trump's going to want back. The post-debate discussion is going to be about him, not Biden. And that's simply not what he needs.

And I think that's the easiest test here. The whole Biden strategy is for this race to be about Trump, and it's obvious the Trump campaign would like it to be about Biden. I don't think there's any doubt who 'won' by that measure

I did just watch the local ABC news segment here in NY and fwiw I thought the Biden 'shut up man' comment came across a lot worse as an isolated clip than as just another episode in an unrelenting mess

And surprisingly, the section when Trump refused to condemn white supremacists didn't make the segment at all

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