Good morning. If you had a sinking feeling on 28 June when you woke up to the news that Joe Biden had turned in an utterly incoherent debate performance, you will probably have a bit more appetite for your boiled egg this time. A few hours ago, the only scheduled debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris came to an end – and even Fox News said Harris won.
Democrats’ moods can only have been improved by the news, a few minutes after it ended, that Taylor Swift had endorsed Harris, and signed her post “childless cat lady”. And CNN’s snap poll suggested that voters thought Harris won by a margin of 63% to 37% – nearly as big a margin as Trump achieved over Biden last time around. Key to Harris’ success was baiting her opponent into rants on marginal topics, instead of talking about the issues that voters are interested in.