Joe Biden and Donald Trump faced off against each other Thursday night in the first US Presidential debate of 2024. Did you watch? Did anything said change your mind about the men and their candidacies?

Yesterday I mentioned a few tings that struck me. Today a few more. Tomorrow and the day after that I hope to make some suggestions as to what to watch for next.

1. The first thing that struck me happened before the debate. CNN, the host broadcaster, announced that unlike every previous such debate I have ever seen, this one would have commercial breaks. There weren’t many, but on the channel I was watching there were two Biden ads and one for Trump, a counterpoint to the live action between the two.

2. I thought Biden lost the segment dealing with abortion rights, which is supposed to be perhaps the issue on which the Democrats feel they have the biggest advantage, given that most Americans surveyed are generally supportive of allowing abortions. Trump stuck to the party line, while Biden talked about the need to ensure, among other things, that “a lot of young women raped by their in-laws, spouses, brothers and sisters” have access to abortion. (I had to look up the transcript, yes he said it. Sisters getting sisters pregnant. Just another verbal gaffe in a night full of them.) Biden knows that rape and incest are not the primary reasons women have abortion – and Trump himself had already stated he thought abortion acceptable in such cases.

3. Almost everything Trump said was a lie. Or maybe just false – it isn’t lying if you believe it to be true. Biden called him on it sometimes, but not nearly enough.

4. One of the things new radio announcers are instructed to do is smile, even though in radio the audience doesn’t see you. Your voice sounds friendlier. Biden’s handlers should have given him that advice for when he wasn’t speaking. He didn’t look relatable to the audience by not showing more emotion.

5. Biden was better at zingers than I expected. I’ve always thought that was a Trump specialty. He delivered them relatively well – but to my ear they sounded rehearsed. Trump sounded more spontaneous. Sadly, none of their shots at each other touched on policy – it was all about personalities. “This guy is three years younger and a lot less competent” sounded good to me. as did “You’re a whiner. Something snapped in you when you lost the first time.”

6. Donald Trump really has no idea what he is doing. As Richard Nixon had a “secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam, so too Trump intends to end the war in Ukraine before he is sworn in as President. If he really had a plan, who not explain it.

7. There wasn’t as much emphasis as I expected on trump’s felony convictions and upcoming trials. “I didn’t have sex with a porn star,” he said. Biden missed an opportunity to ask whey then Trump paid the woman $130,000 to not tell her story about their time together. Can someone who squanders money like that be trusted with the reins of government?

I have a number of other points I could include, but I promised myself I would limit my commentary. Tomorrow some thoughts on what comes next in politics.