Friend: Karen, did you watch the debate?
Karen: Every f***ing minute of it.
Friend: What did you think?
Karen: “Stand back and stand by”?!! If 40% of my fellow citizens are fine with that then we are in real trouble here.
Friend: No, he just misspoke.
Karen: If he misspoke then he needs to clarify that. He needs to very clearly say, “I denounce the Proud Boys. I denounce white supremacists. White supremacy has no place in our nation.” And he needs to say this without having his fingers crossed behind his back and without a wink-wink nudge-nudge. He has had two days now to denounce the Proud Boys and he has not done this. I think we can assume he’s not going to.
Friend: But did you notice Biden didn’t answer any questions?
Karen: No crap! Trump kept interrupting him!!!
Friend: Well, Biden should be able to handle that kind of pressure if he’s going to be president.
Karen: Biden is not a pre-school teacher. He shouldn’t be expected to placate toddlers having tantrums. Presidents move on the world stage – dealing with other international leaders who are grown-ups – dealing with pre-schoolers having tantrums is not Biden’s area of expertise, and we shouldn’t expect it to be.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
(I wish I’d taken a photo of the faces of the PBS commentators at the end of the debate to paste here. They looked like they’d just been through a battle – eyes wide, faces drawn. I felt tremendous sympathy for them and empathy with them.)
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 
Nicely done. I felt the same way, like Id been gut-punched, having to endure all that. Someone else pointed out how abusive it was, and to watch someone being abused feels like that. I think he just knocked himself out of the race.
I hope so. I really hope he knocked himself out of the race. But (no surprise!) he still has loyal supporters who are defending him – trying to explain away what we saw with our own eyes.