10:31 PM: Something snapped in you when you lost. Biden’s saying the things he needed to now. But it’s late.
10:29 PM: Can’t say he’ll accept the results of the election.
10:20 PM: “I just won two club championships.”
10:09 PM: “Never seen anger like this before.”
10:01 PM: Biden campaign now putting out that Biden has a cold. That’s clearly true. And very unfortunate.
9:50 PM: Okay, the first twenty minutes of this debate were simply awful for Biden. I do not see any other way to put it. He was unfocused, hoarse, lost his train of thought a few times. That’s shifted in the last half hour. Enough? I don’t know. Trump has also gone further into his weak spots, the conspiracy theories, inability not to start threatening retribution, denial about January 6th. Biden has definitely gotten more focused and is landing some punches. He’s still hoarse. It seems like he has a cold. But he starting to make the points he needs to.
9:47 PM: Biden is finally, finally starting to get some traction, get out the lines he needs to get out. But it’s half way through the debate and the impression get set early.
9:46 PM: Trump started by saying his retribution would be success. But he’s now worked his way back around to threatening to prosecute Biden.
9:38 PM: Again, Biden picking up a little speed. Far more focused on the wars he’s spent most of his time working on.
9:35 PM: It’s interesting that Biden’s far more on the ball about the situation with Israel. Probably because that’s what he’s been working for months. The rest has been a jumble.
9:33 PM: As I said, Biden’s picking up a bit of momentum as we move to foreign policy. But the contrast in energy is still stark. And Biden simply isn’t hitting Trump on the big vulnerability points. I mean, on Russia Ukraine, this is the guy who is in league with Putin. That’s a massive vulnerability.
9:30 PM: Trump is making so many nonsensical points that it’s really unfortunate that Biden isn’t counterpunching.
9:29 PM: Biden’s getting moderately better in the last few minutes. But the impression of the two is largely determined in the first half hour or so. So this is a big problem.
9:28 PM: No Trump is going way off into the arcana of MAGA conspiracy theory.
9:26 PM: I don’t know what the time for each candidate it is but it *feels* like all the talking is Trump. But I think that may be because he’s just controlling the tempo and speaking more forcefully.
9:20 PM: Biden should have focused on the point there that they had a bill and Trump killed it. But he didn’t mention that.
9:15 PM: The energy contrast is stark.
9:10 PM: Biden seems hoarse and sick. And that’s really not great.
8:58 PM: Having Van Jones and David Axelrod on the CNN panel is basically a war crime.
8:52 PM: I always have to get a feel for how much I can write and still keep up with actually watching the thing. But here’s where I’ll be sharing my thoughts. My colleagues will have more in the site Live Blog.
