Last night's debate was significantly more civil and watchable than the first one. Well, for the most part. Trump started to unravel again towards the middle and end of the debate, but overall it was far different from the first debate and there was - get this - actual policy discussion.
Having said that, it was still a pretty bad debate and a bad sign for America's future if we continue down this path. In recent years, Donald Trump has set the bar so low that simply anything forming a somewhat coherent message that can be easily understood is now considered a good debate performance - even if that message is entirely false. Donald Trump has made it so that truth is not important in matters of public discourse.
Biden didn't do any harm to his campaign, and Trump probably solidified whatever soft support is left for him. Because of Trump's more calm demeanor, I do think he'll see more of a rise in the polls than Biden will...but by the same token, I doubt Biden will see any decline in his poll numbers. The debate will be seen as basically a wash.
If the NC undecided voter panel is any indication, then no, I don't think that's the case. It sounds like undecided voters in general lean Biden.
Which is not really surprising. Virtually all polls throughout this cycle have shown undecideds are composed of demographics favorable to Biden. A chunk of these undecideds won't vote at all, but my guess is that those who decided to watch the debate were looking for a reason to vote for Biden, and might have found one. Biden had a strong night.
Trump has put himself in a place where his only play is to energize his base and try to suppress Biden's. He isn't going to win over large chunks of new and undecided voters.
