By any conventional measure, United States Vice President Kamala Harris resoundingly beat Donald Trump in their first presidential showdown.
Of the two politicians on the stage in Philadelphia, Harris faced the steeper challenge — she needed to reintroduce herself to the American public in her new role, defend the record of President Joe Biden and at the same time differentiate herself as a candidate. She simultaneously had to frame the stakes of the election and prosecute the case against her opponent.
To varying extents, she accomplished all of these aims, summing up her argument in an oft-repeated and optimistic request that Americans turn the page with her on the ugliness of the Trump years.
