He had so much to work with, with Harris. Maybe the friction with the hosts and the mocking by Harris played a role and drained his energy.

But clearly, Trump failed to deliver a definitive knockout blow. That is on him.

I think that lack of a kill shot is more than made up for with Harris's facial mocking and her only response to a request for "policies" being vacuous giveways that will simply inflate the housing market and turbocharge inflation.

PBD podcast made a great point about Trump's harping on the negatives of the US in decline.

PBD compared Trump's negative take on the US trajectory to a "fire and brimstone" preacher who tells everyone in the church that they're going straight to hell and hellfire if they don't get saved. That guy will have people lined up for altar calls . (That approach actually made baptist and evangelical churches grow like crazy in the 70s.)

Whereas the pastor who only preaches about God's eternal love and heaven being full of peace and love will get an anemic turnout.

Disaster talk gets attention and sells. Happy talk gets little traction.

I really think Trump did alright. Some polls indicate that Trump sold more undecideds than Harris after the debate.

The debate format isn't really a great way to showcase either candidate's strengths and weaknesses or specific points of difference. Trump is totally undisciplined about delivering a coherent logical message - he talks and debates by instinct.