Kamala/Donald Debate: Kamala Wins on Exceeding Expectations Plus Style; Donald Wins in a Close Call on Substance; My Guess is that Kamala Gains Temporarily in the Polls

I found the debate riveting, frustrating, and perplexing.

Vice President Kamala Harris was so much clearer than I expected her to be that I was just incredulous.

Former President Donald (Trump was stylistically off his game, and why?  Not enough self-discipline.

The ABC hosts, David Muir and Linsey Davis, were clearly and irritatingly anti-Trump, but not quite as biased as I expected from the home of Jonathan Karl and George Stephanopoulos.  Is there no neutral figure at the network?

So many distortions and misstatements by Harris:

1. Trump intends to raise sales tax — no he doesn’t…

2. Trump supports Project 25 — no he doesn’t…

3. Trump will sign a bill banning abortion nationwide – no he doesn’t…

4. Trump’s bipartisan border bill did not prevent Biden-Harris from taking executive action and she never explained how the awful border situation has evolved into the catastrophe it has become.

5. Trump brought up Trump’s “fine people on both sides” remark regarding Charlottesville.  What he added was “And you had people [on the other side] — and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally.”

6. On the Hamas invasion of Israel, Harris said she supports Israel, but “Israel has a right to defend itself, but too many Palestinians have been killed” and “We need a 2-State solution,” a solution that would put Israel perpetually at war.

7. Harris ignored Trump’s bringing up the violence that infests America, such as the terrible riots in Minneapolis and Seattle.

8. Harris falsely quotes Trump as saying he would be a dictator on day one, In an interview with Hannity, he said that he would be a dictator in the sense that,  “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.”

9. Harris brings up Trump’s “bloodbath” remark, alleging he was saying if he didn’t win, that would be the result – he brought that up in the context of energy problems, and she knew this.

The moderators Muir and Davis clearly favored Harris:

1. They bring up the abortion issue second in the debate…why?  Because they think Trump is vulnerable on that…

2. Muir said that Trump falsely questioned the 2020 election…not the moderator’s job to say it was false since they took no positions on the falsity of Harris’s claims…

3. Questions after questions were softballs to Harris and cutting with disdain particularly by Davis to Trump.

4. All of the fact-checking was employed against Trump.

Trump’s style was self-destructive, although not as bad as in some previous debates, and on substance, he won:

1. Trump must explain clearly the mistake he made in opposing the bipartisan border bill…

2. Trump unbelievably goes into the unsubstantiated point regarding Haitian immigrants’ abducting and eating pets, while Harris laughed derisively…

3. Trump ridicules Harris on Biden’s killing of the Keystone Pipeline. Good; why isn’t she pressed on this and Biden and her accommodating of Iran?

4. Trump started litigating the 2020 election again, despite my inner voice yelling, “Oh, no.”

5. His final statement was good, focusing on the central question: for all the changes Harris suggests, she has been in office 3 and ½ years – so what has she done?

In the game of expectations, Harris was the clear winner; in the game of substance, Trump won on points, even though he avoided opportunities to focus on the issues on which he needed to focus: His mealy-mouthed response on the Affordable Care Act was seriously destructive. What, he has no plan but will offer something soon?

People will differ on who won, but regardless, neither scored a knockout.