Beware the instant pundit analyses that declares “winners” and “losers.” … As my adage goes, there is the debate you saw, and then there’s the debate the pundits would have you believe you saw. Take everything your read on social media with a huge barrel of salt – many analysts have an ideological or political axe to grind, and in the absence of objective measures of debate performance, these underlying predispositions can bias their analysis in subtle ways. How else do you explain the dozens of different takes regarding the debate’s “winners” and “losers.” In short, believe the debate you saw – be skeptical of everything someone else tells you you saw. CONT.
Matthew Dickinson, Middlebury College