Do agree with this take?

[SaneDemocrat]

Obviously the race staying the same in a week from now helps Biden.

[Stuart98]

Don't agree. While most voters who aren't already in the D column don't care about Trump's bigotry or his norm-breaking behaviors, I don't think that's to say nothing can sway them from voting for the president. Joe Biden's already been making the argument that Trump is the corrupt coastal elite while he's the champion of the working everyman. The timing of the debate with the recent leaks of Trump's tax returns presents a great opportunity for Biden to hammer this home in front of the largest audience he's gonna get before November.

[DaleCooper]

Polls indicate that a majority of voters are expecting Trump to win the debate, so no, I definitely don't agree that this debate can only help Trump. If anything, I'd say it'll be very hard for him to come out of the first debate unscathed.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

If anything, I think the debates can only hurt Trump

[Hammy]

Every time Trump opens his mouth, his poll numbers go down. And people still think the debates will help him?

[SaneDemocrat]

Every time Trump opens his mouth, his poll numbers go down. And people still think the debates will help him?

Because Biden right now is helped by his high favorabilities. All of trumps nonsense is baked in.

[Buzz]

I think Biden has more to lose, but overall won’t have a ton of impact either way unless something crazy happens. 

[mileslunn]

Unlike with Hillary Clinton, Biden has reputation of being gaffe prone so expectations are low for both and thus not hard for either to win.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

The debates will not change anything.

At all.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

The debates will not change anything.

At all.

Im stunned it took 7 posts before getting to this take. I expected this one to be posted within seconds of the thread being started

[GeneralMacArthur]

Somehow there are still 4-5% of voters who are undecided in this election.  Although I personally think these are just future Trump voters who are still looking for the right excuse (they will inevitably find it before election day), it's not impossible that if the president's debate performance is poor enough, some of them (or some of his soft supporters) will say "that's it, I can't do this anymore" and vote for Biden.

Still, I see the debates as much more of an obstacle than an opportunity, and I'm mainly just looking for Biden to make it through without screwing up.  Which I have confidence in his ability to do.  But Trump will be desperate and flailing.

[roxas11]

I don't agree because trump has already convinced the public that joe will lose the first debate
most voters already believe this yet they still backing Biden over him lol

he already set expectations super low for Biden and at this point if all Biden does is give an OK performance he will be seen as the won who won the debate 

[ugabug]

I don't agree. I think if Trump comes out of the debate looking old and weak that could hurt him with a portion of his voters who see his anti democratic nonsense as evidence of him being a strong leader. If you take a look at the polling the one area where Trump continues to beat Biden is on the economy in part because Trump has spent decades branding himself as a successful businessman so the other thing i could see hurting him is if Biden is able to successfully attack Trumps record as a businessman.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Donald will start with the same introduction to the debates he used in 2016:

Focus on:

American Jobs
American International Trade
American Border
American Economy

Anti-China
Anti-Globalisation
Anti-Mexico

The really interesting part will be when they got some oddball questions.

They are both pretty scripted candidates, so will be interesting to watch who keeps it together when the questions are off-centre to normal political topics.

I thought Trump did well in the debates against Hillary, so will be interesting to see how he goes.

[Chips]

It is possible for Trump to win the debates and he likely must if he wants any chance but it's far from certain.

[SaneDemocrat]

If Biden makes gaffes,I think he would be punished.Dont think the same is true for Trump.

[Sir Mohamed]

Nah. Even if Trump comes out somewhat neutral or avoids being destroyed, the first debate, which has the most viewers, is one of his last chances to turn the race around. The clock is ticking as the election is already underway in some states. If Trump fails to get a major bump from this debate, I have a hard time seeing him to turn the tide. Things could only change then as a result of developments beyond Trump's control. But that's not likely to happen. Certainly nothing Trumo should bank on.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Nah. Even if Trump comes out somewhat neutral or avoids being destroyed, the first debate, which has the most viewers, is one of his last chances to turn the race around. The clock is ticking as the election is already underway in some states. If Trump fails to get a major bump from this debate, I have a hard time seeing him to turn the tide. Things could only change then as a result of developments beyond Trump's control. But that's not likely to happen. Certainly nothing Trumo should bank on.

Also, the Trump campaign and its online allies have banked so heavily into the "Biden Has Dimentia" line of attack that as long as Biden shows up and is semi-coherent, he will have won the debate, especially since in ANY Trump interview so far, any answer spins off into irrelevant gibberish about ventilator production and numbers of tests.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Honestly, I think that the debate will have negligible impact on polling regardless of who wins the debate. Most people made up their minds long ago, and at this point, it seems like there a very few undecides, especially since a good chunk of the undecides in polls are usually closet partisans. Seriously, do you guys actually know anyone whos genuinely undecided and would be swayed by a strong debate performance?

[ProudModerate2]

No.
The moderator has the option to change a topic, if it's deemed worthy of immediate discussion because of a recent major event. This could mean that Chris Wallace may want to discuss trump's taxes.
This could go horribly for trump, if he fumbles and makes things worse (and/or Biden makes the right attack comments on this issue).

[Turbo Flame]

No. I think the third debate helps Trump more then the first or second.