Trump's egregious behavior at the first debate - combined with the NY Times tax story and his getting Covid led to Trump's collapse from 42% all the way down to...41%. Biden picked up a couple of points and went from 50% to 52% in the national polls.
In other words, the single worst debate performance in modern memory barely moved the needle at all. Conventions and debates usually provide some sort of "bounce" but they are usually ephemeral. They can elevate a challenger by putting them on stage with the incumbent, but they are pretty much the definition of "political theater." They are breathlessly assessed by pundits acting as theater critics, dissecting pauses or slips to the tongue or posture.
Debates serve no purpose to illuminate policies, which is ostensibly the point of an election. You should pick the candidate whose policies you support. What the debates both demonstrate and support is the fact that we don't actually pick candidates based on what their potential governing policies would be, but rather where they hit us in the feels.
Sweet baby Jesus make it stop.
Much more illuminating would be giving the candidate and his or her advisers various problems to solve and positions to explain. But of course, that isn't the bullshit theater we've come to expect. Ugh.
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