At The Cook Political Report Amy Walter saw the debate a little differently:
Biden came in as the frontrunner and took a lot of incoming flak on everything from his age, to his record on race, to his support for the Iraq war. He looked good on some things (he easily swatted down Rep. Eric Swalwell’s ham-handed generational attack) but was shakier on race (Harris attacked him on his past record on busing and two Democrats commented to me post-debate that his “states rights” answer on busing was terrible). Overall, however, he took a lot of punches but didn’t take on water.
That’s what the post-debate polling has shown. Biden’s numbers were essentially unchanged while Harris’s improved. However, I think that Ms. Walter is not taking into account what the progressive wing of the Democratic Party wants. They want blood. They’ll never support Biden. I believe them when say they’d rather that Trump be re-elected than that a mild candidate oppose him.
The Democratic Party has a number of distinct factions: progressives, black voters, labor unions, technocrats. I don’t think that black voters vote on race as much as many commentators seem to or at least not in the same way and I think that Biden is likely to retain his present strong union support. The stage is set for a family feud.
At this stage the debates are just chum for the chattering class.
Maybe the question from the debate is not what viewers think, but what Joe Biden thinks (of Ms Harris).