As I predicted, the media is going to declare Kamala Harris the winner no matter how it went, and yes, they're already off to the races. That was a foregone conclusion.
Former President Donald Trump wasn't just dealing with one opponent; he had to deal with the hostile moderators as well. And it was perhaps to be anticipated that ABC would not be fair.
Trump had the laugh of the night when he dropped her own line on her about "I'm talking now." She looked weird and childish, making faces at him.
Kamala lied her head off the whole time and didn't answer questions. If people know the facts, they will know she was lying.
But there was one sign that Harris was worried despite the media effort to spin on her behalf, that Laura Ingraham pointed out — they're asking for another debate.
"If she's asking for another debate, though, they don't think she won this debate," Ingraham said.
If they did, they would be saying, "Mic drop, we're done," she added. "They don't think that she's in a position right now to win this race."
Trump himself laid that out when he was speaking in the spin room after the debate, and he declared victory.
He said, "She wants it because she lost." He said he wasn't sure he needed to, and maybe "if it were a fair network," he would. What it really comes down to is what he said to Hannity, "We have the best policy; she has no policy."
I wonder if the Harris team is looking at the internals and the focus groups and thinking she didn't achieve what she needed to. I think that may be it. They know the polls were moving to Trump, and they can see the Nate Silver forecast. They don't think she did enough, even with the assist from the moderators.
We'll have to see if this changes the landscape one way or the other over the next few days.