Overall, Harris was well prepared, and nothing she said or didn’t say is likely to make a lasting difference. Indeed, even Pence’s performance, good as it was, will not reshape the dynamics of the race. The Dems were the front­runners when the debate started and remained so when it ended.

There is one change that must be made, however: the moderators. The system of selecting career Washington correspondents is outdated and an obvious case of implicit bias when a president remains a disrupter to both parties and the ruling establishment.

Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today, followed in the footsteps of many of her predecessors by playing an outsized and inappropriate role. She did that with her questions, which sounded like they were ripped from the headlines of the Trump-hating Washington Post and New York Times.

Posed as questions, they conveyed an obvious sense of favoritism to the Democrats’ agenda.