It was the first debate I have watched from start to finish in many years.  I felt I had to, so I did.  That was one-and-a-half hours of my life that I can never get back.  By the end, I felt shaky and nauseous, but more than anything I felt disgusted by some 40% of this nation who could actually watch that clown and still think he should be chosen to run this country.

Moderator Chris Wallace, to his credit, attempted to shut Donald Trump’s mouth more than a few times, but it proved to be impossible.  Donald Trump interrupted not only his challenger, Joe Biden, but also Chris Wallace just about every time one of them attempted to speak. So wrapped up in himself was Trump that I actually got the feeling Joe Biden and Chris Wallace could have left and Trump would have continued his blah-blah-blah-ing.  He reminded me of a battery-operated toy on steroids, only not nearly as cute as the Energizer Bunny.

If the other two debates actually happen, I think provisions should be made to enable the moderator to simply switch off Trump’s microphone when it isn’t his turn to speak.  Conversely, they could hire large men with rolls of duct tape to place across his mouth every time he opens it.  Frankly, I don’t see anything to be gained by having any additional debates, for nothing … NOTHING was accomplished with this one.  It was not a debate, but a show … a show put on by Trump for the benefit of his rabid base who, no doubt, thought he did great.

I will spare you a blow-by-blow reporting of the debate, but if you’d like a written transcript, you can find one here  .  I will, however, give you a few of the more … salient moments.

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Well, okay then … I guess there were no ‘salient’ moments.  There were a couple of good lines, though, the best one being at the 18:18 mark when, after yet another of Trump’s juvenile repeated interruptions, Joe Biden said, “Will you shut up, man?”  The moment immediately lit up my Twitter feed and continues to be the source of humour and kudos today.  As several have noted, he voiced what we were all saying here at home!

Toward the end of the debate, Trump did what he had been saying he planned to do, attacking Joe Biden’s son.  Personally, I think that no man with a shred of human decency would attack another man’s family for political gain.  Period.  But, we’re talking about Trump, so it was not unexpected.  But, in my view it backfired on Trump, ‘bigly’.  Here was Biden’s very heartfelt response …

“And speaking of my son, the way you talk about the military, the way you talk about them being losers and being and just being suckers. My son was in Iraq. He spent a year there. He got the Brown Star. He got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser. He was a Patriot and the people left behind there were heroes.”

And a minute later, when Trump kept rambling …

“My son like a lot of people at home had a drug problem. He’s overtaking it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him, I’m proud of my son.”

The Hunter Biden conspiracy theory, for the record, has been investigated and debunked enough times that it should have been put to bed years ago, but Trump seems not to have gotten that memo.

The best part of the entire debate was at the end when Joe Biden looked straight into the camera, looked us right in the eye and said …

“Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of this election. Vote, vote, vote. If you’re able to vote early in your state, vote early. If you’re able to vote in person, vote in person. Vote whatever way is the best way for you, because you will… He cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of this election. And in terms of whether or not… When the votes are counted and they’re all counted, that will be accepted. If I win, that will be accepted. If I lose, that’ll be accepted.”

As a tool for learning more about the candidates and their platforms, the debate was worthless … a waste of time.  As a means of learning something about the candidates’ personalities … it only reinforced what we already knew:  Donald J. Trump is a rude & crude asshole and Joe Biden is a man of conscience, intellect, and compassion.  I have no doubt that if the other two debates, scheduled for October 15^th and October 22^nd proceed as planned, they will also be naught but a circus act for the benefit of energizing Trump’s base.  Personally, I will not waste my time watching another, though I may consider watching the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris next week.