Chuck Todd: Harris avoids some big questions, but Trump's lack of control costs him

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : By any conventional measure that any political veteran of any political stripe would accept, not a one would say under oath that Trump had a good night.
61% : (Again, Trump didn't acknowledge any failures in his administration other than the people he fired, and Harris didn't seem to hug the Biden-Harris record very much.)
56% : Her strategy was pretty clear: dodge specifics about Biden's record and her role in it, dodge the position changes she has made between running for president in 2019 and running for president today and turn any question and every answer into a dig or a goad at Trump.
52% : She was strongest when she was focused on Trump, and she was weakest when she was trying to sell her own proposals.
50% : (The reaction shots while Trump was talking certainly gave us some clue about what she was thinking.)
42% : Not only did Trump fail to connect Harris more directly with the Biden years, but so did the questions.
42% : (Clearly, Trump appeared to be the main character of the debate.
41% : It was quite stunning how easy it was for Harris to goad Trump into a meandering defensive response that felt focused on himself.
39% : Did Trump answer the question of what he'd do differently as president this time in a way that was believable?
37% : Analysis: Harris successfully baited Trump over and over in the debate, but voters who tuned for more information about her plans may have come away wanting.
34% : And Harris certainly took advantage of every opportunity to turn many of the questions directed at her or the Biden-Harris administration back on Trump.
33% : She got Trump to talk about his various legal issues and his inheritance in addition to those rally crowds.
31% : It was fascinating to be on the receiving end of Trump campaign fact-checks about Harris during Tuesday's debate, because what was said in the fact-checks was never uttered onstage by Trump -- inadvertent reminders to reporters about what Trump didn't coherently do onstage.
30% : Trump was just a poor debater Tuesday, and he allowed himself to be seen and portrayed more as an incumbent than his opponent.
30% : Because Trump chased every shiny object she offered up.
30% : It's a marked contrast to the first general election debate, in which both Biden and Trump spent agonizing minutes unable to tear themselves away from discussing their golfing prowess and refocus on voters.
28% : Trump couldn't help himself.
28% : If there was one issue about which Harris did make her position clear and created the clearest contrast with Trump, it was abortion.
27% : She never really addressed it -- and Trump never made her own that.
23% : How did voters digest the age difference on camera -- a facet of the campaign that has changed dramatically since Biden dropped out, with Trump confronted with a new comparison in the split screen?
22% : It was a mistake for Hillary Clinton to make the race about Trump in 2016, because, it turned out, the voters had made this election about her, instead.
22% : Her rhetorical trick of calling the various state laws "Trump abortion bans" struck me as a potential branding that could hurt Trump even more with women.
17% : It's telling that Trump wouldn't commit to a new debate after Harris accepted one already.
7% : It was enough for Biden to make the race about Trump in 2020, which is why Trump lost.
4% : But Trump has weathered terrible debate performances before; before Biden's flameout in June, Trump had never been seen in post-debate polling as the "winner" of any general election debate.

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