Who won the debate

Did America finally get the debate it deserved? That's what a champion debate coach thinks

After the first big debate of 2024, there was more of a consensus on who lost than on who won it: President Joe Biden couldn’t make a coherent case against Donald Trump, a former president who peppered his comments with falsehoods. And the clock started ticking on when Biden would have to drop out of the race.

After the second debate, the polls and the pundits agreed: Vice President Kamala Harris defeated Trump by a wide margin.

And so, the Tuesday night debate between vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz was the rubber match, the one that would decide which party made the best use of the 2024 debate season.

Who won? On one level, it was the moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, who asked tougher questions of each candidate than Vance and Walz asked each other. But there is also a case to be made, as champion debate coach Todd Graham told me, that America won — by getting the substantive debate we’ve been waiting for. (For Graham’s detailed scoresheet, see belo…