Subject: Trump's debate peformance
From Slate's "The Surge"...

Donald Trump
Surpassing the world’s lowest bar.

For arguably the first time in his nearly 10-year political career, Donald Trump wasn’t the main story coming out of a political event in which he participated. Even if that’s good news for him, it probably pisses him off. Trump, at least in the first half of the debate, appeared to be uncharacteristically willing to heed advice from his advisers; you could tell that he was summoning all of his energy not to do a malevolent mock stutter of Biden as the president floundered for his words. It’s not as if Trump was reborn as the perfect candidate, though. He delivered more than enough obvious lies, dodges, sneers, and racism, especially as the debate went on, to remind voters that just because Biden has his own serious problems, Trump remains repellent. We’re interested to see how long Trump can allow himself to remain in the background as the Democratic Party melts itself into a radioactive puddle. Can he make it, say, 48 hours without getting bored and deciding to streak at a Yankees game? His resolve will be tested.