The former vice-president was more assured, more animated and more coherent than he has been in the previous two debates where he was criticised for being flat and rambling.
The 76-year-old frontrunner showed a willingness for the first time to directly challenge his main two rivals — the populist progressives Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — about the costs of their programs to deliver universal healthcare and other big spending programs.
Biden cast himself as the grown-up in the field, the experienced candidate who did not just promise endless candy to the electorate but who also had an eye on how it would be paid for in the real world.
Both Warren and Sanders came back at Biden strongly, arguing that they were running on principles rather than bookkeeping, saying that medicare for all, free college education and child care were fundamental human rights whose time had come.
Despite the sometimes fiery theatrics between the leading ten Democrat contenders there were no ‘breakout moments’ in this three hour debate that were likely to drastically alter the current polls which see Biden enjoying a comfortable lead over Warren and Sanders with a sizeable gap to the rest of the 20 person field.
Warren was competent in her arguments but did not impose herself onto this debate as much as might have been expected after her strong summer which saw her rise to assume second place behind Biden in most polls.
Sanders was strong but still suffered from his singular persona as an angry revolutionary who makes a good point without empathy.
Of the more minor candidates, the strongest performer was the 37 year old mayor of South Bend Indiana, Pete Buttigieg — currently fifth in the polls — who made coherent middle ground arguments on health care, US foreign policy, guns and immigration.
The other strong performer was former congressman Beto O’Rourke who shed the nervous persona of previous debates to launch the most aggressive attack of the night on Donald Trump while also advocating mandatory buybacks of assault weapons.
Harris, who is coming fourth in the polls, was competent but underwhelming and failed in what might be her last serious opportunity to gather momentum to challenge the top three candidates.
Others on the stage, including Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker were underwhelming while the final two — entrepreneur Andrew Yang and former housing secretary Julian Castro — were even worse. Yang sounded like a quiz show hosting in offering ten families $1000 each per month as part of a pilot program for his universal basic income plan while Castro launched a series of unedifying attacks on Biden’s age. In the end, this debate only highlighted how few genuine contenders there are to tackle Donald Trump for the White House.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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