The Democratic Nominee Won Last Night’s Debate

Each raised the issue of the competence and character of the incumbent. Sanders declared it unacceptable for Trump to be “blabbering with unfactual information which is confusing the general public.” In his telling, Trump is the most dangerous president in the modern history of the country. “The United States cannot deal with a president who is a pathological liar, who is running a corrupt administration, who obviously doesn’t know the Constitution, who believes he is above the law, who is a racist and a sexist and a homophobe,” he said.

Biden asserted that in 2020, “the character of the nation is on the ballot,” adding that four more years of Trump “will fundamentally change who we are as a nation. We’ve got to restore this country’s soul.”

Of course, yesterday’s debate wasn’t all high-minded laments about Trump. The candidates criticized each other, sharply at times; litigated past votes in Congress; and participated in the familiar game of regarding their own words and actions with more charity than those of their opponent.

Peter Wehner: The Trump presidency is over

In a bygone era, their debate might have seemed typical. “Biden is full of empty platitudes tonight,” the former George W. Bush–administration official Ari Fleischer observed. “‘Leadership. International leadership. Send experts to China. Send experts to the Situation Room.’ No answers. Just platitudes.” To which David Frum, who also served in the Bush White House, retorted, “They *were* platitudes. But when the present policy is ‘Sociopathy. Steal Germany’s vaccine industry. Blame China. Send crooks and hacks to the Situation Room’—the platitudes become bold, brave, and refreshing change.”

I suspect that voters will value showmanship and contempt for expertise less, and virtue and trustworthiness more, in 2020. In a moment of crisis, both Biden and Sanders came across as more unifying and less mendacious than the GOP’s alternative. I don’t know if Democratic voters will judge Biden or Sanders the winner. But with the field winnowed, the crowd gone, and the stakes so much higher than before, both men met the moment, substantively and stylistically. They are both better suited to the times than is the incumbent, who never stops tweeting for long and who has spent more time trolling every week of his presidency than trying to unite Americans. The Democratic nominee, whomever it is, won last night’s debate.

Conor Friedersdorf is a California-based staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.