Two political figures confronting and debating for almost two hours in front of the world’s cameras, during prime time, is an abnormal phenomenon in itself. And commentators from all over the world, as experienced as they are, despite making relevant predictions and warnings in the hours preceding, still find it difficult to predict what will really happen with these perilous exercises, dependent on the energy of the moment, the type of animation, the formatting, the meeting between two people under very high tension…
This is how, despite obvious presidential qualities, Joe Biden offered this summer the most catastrophic debate in history. This is also how Kamala Harris – who had been suggested to remain focused on what her governance has to offer – instead decided (and succeeded!) to put in place a Donald Trump who promised to be intractable and victorious. Ultimately, this is how on Tuesday evening, no prediction held up. Tim Walz no longer had his splendor (that little sympathetic “close to the people” side that we had suggested he cultivate), mired as he was in his lies. While the “pitbull” JD Vance turned out to be smiling, often compassionate, even sometimes touching, to the point of making us forget his Trumpist devotion (I suspect in him a chameleon who is preparing his candidacy for 2028!).
Ultimately, the big winner of this debate (which left us all a little speechless) is the astonishing civility with which two candidates, with diametrically opposed ideas, managed to debate and restore the nobility to an exercise that we often associated with grand guignol. Clearly, this presidential campaign will surprise us until the end.
To watch on video