The Impact of the Debate
Bubba
12 Sep
The consensus among the pundits and polls is Kamala Harris beat out Donald Trump in Tuesday night’s presidential debate, but how much will it matter? (WaPo)
The polls: 63% of debate watchers thought Harris outperformed Trump, per a CNN flash poll.
43% of respondents in an overnight YouGov poll said the same, compared to 28% who said they thought Trump won the debate.
Flashback: Like Harris, the polls and media dubbed Hillary Clinton the winner in her first presidential debate with Trump.
In fact, according to the polls, Trump lost all three 2016 debates to Clinton.
An eye-popping statistic: Trump’s June debate with President Biden — which was so disastrous it forced Biden to suspend his campaign — resulted in only a modest bump (from +1.5 to +3.4 in the RealClearPolitics polling average) for the former president.
Sarah Isgur, an editor at The Dispatch:
A less-than-2-point swing as a result of the most catastrophic debate performance in presidential history. That’s how many people are actually up for grabs based on a debate performance!
Bubba’s Two Cents
This is a testament to how polarized the country is and how few voters haven’t already made up their minds. Presidential debates get a lot of hype, but it’s not clear they really move the needle.