Donald Trump and Kamala Harris disappoint

Neither American voters nor the free world that looks to Washington for strong, coherent leadership can take much comfort from Wednesday’s (AEST) dispiriting first – and most likely only – debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

It may be that Ms Harris, as The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and other analysts concluded, “clearly won the debate” by using her skills as an experienced public prosecutor to repeatedly taunt and bait Mr Trump, and that he obliged by falling into the traps she set.

But she, too, needed to do much more than just speak airily and without specifics about crucial issues such as her plans for the economy if she wins on November 5. The polls are neck and neck and the outcome of the race is on a knife-edge. Neither candidate during the 90-minute debate did much that is likely to change that.

Mr Trump has appeared discombobulated since Ms Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s candidate in July. The debate did little to change such perceptions. Time and again, as The Wall Street Journal noted, Mr Trump was sent “diving down rabbit holes of personal grievance and vanity, and that left her policies and history untouched”.

Thus while Ms Harris spoke repeatedly about her “plan” for the economy, she was allowed to get through the debate without providing any specifics beyond insisting that Mr Trump was a man of the “past” and she was the “future”, again without policy details to distinguish one from the other. It’s time to “turn the page”, she argued.

The former president played into her hands by talking mainly about the past, about himself, about the Biden presidency, and, weirdly, at one point about the dire consequences of “millions and millions” of unwanted migrants flooding across the Mexican border and even stealing domestic dogs in Springfield, Ohio, to eat – a claim dismissed as nonsense by local authorities.

Ms Harris’s tactic was always going to be to rattle Mr Trump, and it is unfortunate that he allowed her to do so. What was needed was a coherent debate on America’s future and its place as leader of the free world. We did not get it from either Mr Trump or Ms Harris. Over-the-top assertions like those from Mr Trump that Ms Harris is a Marxist and “the worst vice-president in history” are no substitute for the serious policy debate that was needed. Neither were Ms Harris’s barbs when she clearly succeeded in enraging Mr Trump by calling into question his claims that his campaign rallies are the biggest in history.

“I invite you to attend one of his rallies,” she said in answering a question. “It would be a great night out,” she added jauntily. Mr Trump would talk about Hannibal Lecter and windmills giving people cancer.

“People start leaving his rallies early, out of exhaustion and boredom,” she added, infuriating Mr Trump in the middle of a discussion about illegal immigration, an issue on which he should have had Ms Harris against the ropes.

Instead, there was more of his profoundly dystopian views about the depth of the crisis America is in because of the failures of the Biden-Harris administration.

Mr Trump did not help himself because for most of the debate he allowed Ms Harris to put him on the defensive. He might have done better had he made more of his closing statement earlier in the debate when he said: “She’s going to do this, she’s going to do that, she’s going to do all these wonderful things … (but) why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for 3½ years.”

Whether the debate will have much impact on the swing voters both need if they are to win remains to be seen. Most voters, doubtless, already have views on Mr Trump. The unknown is whether Ms Harris, little known despite being Mr Biden’s Vice-President, did enough to persuade the undecided that she is worth risking as the next Oval Office incumbent.

If they do, she will, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out, owe a great deal to Mr Trump’s lack of preparation and discipline in answering questions. The debate reinforced the poor choice on offer for voters and the unfortunate position this puts other nations that look to the US for global leadership.

American voters deserved better and so did America’s allies as they contemplate the future leadership of the world’s most powerful nation. On their showing during the debate, there is little reason to believe that either Mr Trump or Ms Harris is the ideal candidate to be the next US president. They both missed what should have been a great opportunity for the serious policy debate that was needed.