Trump-Harris debate had a winner but not much else

Even Donald Trump said Kamala Harris had a good debate Tuesday night but the showdown between the former president and current vice president shed disappointingly little light on the details of what sweeping changes Americans could realistically expect under the next administration.

Some of their policy differences already were on display before they met for what might be the only formal matchup between them. Trump grumbled about NATO without ever criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example. Harris defended Biden's support for Ukraine. Trump criticized inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, a target that is surely inbounds — but failed to explain how his proposed tariffs are supposed to ease the problem. Harris cited a critique from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania — which Trump once attended — to argue that his economic plan wouldn’t work.

For good reason, Republicans regard the border crisis under President Joe Biden as a beneficial issue for their candidates. But Trump, who vows mass deportations — which seem unlikely even if he wins — failed to muster facts or logic to reinforce the point that Biden’s strong security steps came only recently, evidently tamping down the influx. And the 45th president didn’t answer for having the GOP in Congress this year kill bipartisan legislation that could have helped ease the crisis.

Harris' pointed critiques left the man Biden defeated in 2020 ranting, glowering and descending into untruths and fantasies that diverted attention from any proper indictment he could make against her. Her tactic of triggering him worked far more easily than it should have.

A president's budget and legislative proposals do change depending on which party wins the Senate and House. But the starting positions of these two candidates can and should be specific. For example, Harris has moved away from Biden somewhat to seem more business-friendly on taxes, saying she’d look to increase the capital-gains tax at a lower rate than what Biden proposed, drawing progressive criticism in response. In the debate she underscored her call for tax cuts for families and tax deductions for small businesses.

But Trump chose silly sensationalism over substance. He repeated an unfounded migrant-scare story that Haitian immigrants captured Ohio residents’ pets and ate them. He said Harris wants to perform "transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison," a distortion of an answer she gave on a questionnaire in 2019. And Trump’s biggest scare tactic, born of magical thinking, is that if he isn’t elected, World War III will surely ensue.

We the people did learn something by viewing the debate. When it came to tone and temperament, and at least a promise to compromise when necessary and unite the country, only Harris met that very basic standard. The debate gave us no reason to believe Trump could change direction and do the same.