I didn’t like the format, and I definitely didn’t like Wallace’s selectively applied time control, although Trump did step on Biden’s time a lot (and vice versa), the way it was moderated was biased. But in those times when Trump did not interupt him, Biden got away with laying out multiple (blatant bullcrap) attacks on Trump, and I felt Trump did a poor job of enumerating his responses.
Their strategy was clever. In one two minute segment, Biden would range his ridiculous accusations over a variety of topics so that Trump really would have had to work hard (and have a sharp short term memory) to address them all. He would go from saying that he tanked to economy, to saying he his horrible for black people, to saying his (Trump’s) trade deals were bad, and then maybe saying that he killed people by blowing off corona. ... and all that is clever because Trump is supposed to bite on the corona comment and the other crap gets let go.
Wallace should have forced Biden to stick to a topic, but he didn’t. So Biden’s debate became a litany of topically varied jabs, and often had very little or nothing to do with the question.
Personally, I think Biden won the debate. Not because he was right. No, in that regard he lost. But his debate strategy was better.
Quite a while ago, Muhammad Ali took on a Japanese wrestler. Everyone thought Ali would knock him out, but the wrestler spent every round diving ti the ground and trying to kick Ali’s legs out from under him.
In the end, Ali had red legs to show for the effort, and no one was impressed with the event.
Trump was the wrestler. He wasn’t going to stand there flat footed and let Biden punch away, which certainly would have been a loss for Trump. He took away Biden’s attacks by knocking his legs out from under him.
The “legs” in this case were any enthusiasm anyone had for Biden going in.
Newt Gingrich correctly observed that republican candidates lose when they allow themselves to be “politely” pummeled by the moderator and the opponent.
Trump has better strategic and tactical instincts than any of us. He made a fool of Biden.