Yes, having a cold doesn’t help your performance, regardless of age.
Jake Kapper and Dana Bash could have been replaced by A.I. deepfakes.
CNN let a lying felon lie and then just kept moving on to the next question.
Trump answered very few questions and just kept spewing stump speech lies.
The debate transcript will look better, as Trump just kept doing the same shtick.
Joe Biden is currently listed with the United States Golf Association as holding a 6.7 handicap playing out of Fieldstone Golf Club in Delaware. Biden hasn’t logged a score in the system since 2018. Scores are typically self-reported, and a handicap comes from an average of the lowest 8 of the most recent 20 posted scores.
The lower the handicap you have, the better golfer you are. Ivanka Trump, for instance, is a 20.9 handicap and Eric Trump is listed as a 13.6 (without a round since 2015). Donald Trump is in the system as a member of the prestigious Winged Foot Golf Club in New York. He lists a handicap of 2.5 but hasn’t posted a score since 2021.
The biggest post-debate polling bump in the last four presidential cycles helped Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee in 2012, make up an average of 4.6 percentage points in national polls.
- But Romney's lead over then-President Obama didn't last.
Why it matters: A good (or bad) first debate can show up in the polls a week after the debate, according to the Real Clear Politics average of national polls.
- It doesn't seal the fate of either candidate, however.
- Obama recovered from an uninspired debate effort in 2012 and built a healthy lead in the national polls, which translated into a victory on Election Day.
- In 2020, Joe Biden increased his lead over then-President Trump after their first messy meeting with a net gain of nearly 3 points, after coming into the debate with a 6-point advantage.
Flashback: After Trump's first showdown with Hillary Clinton in 2016, watched by a record 84 million viewers, Clinton saw a net gain of about 1 point nationally, adding to her lead.
- That polling dynamic persisted until Election Day, when Clinton had a 3.2-point average advantage nationally.
- But Trump shocked many political observers, and some inside his campaign, by winning more electoral votes while losing the popular vote by 2.1 points.
- When Obama was a rising Democratic star in 2008, he saw a slight polling uptick after his first debate with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Obama held on for victory that November.
Zoom out: Debates don't happen in a vacuum, and other events influence voters' opinions.
- McCain's suspending of his campaign in late September 2008 because of the global financial crisis arguably affected that race more than the debate.
- The pandemic loomed large in the Trump-Biden race in 2020.
A solid performance in a second debate can help voters forget about a subpar first one, as then-President Reagan showed against former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984.
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