The first US Presidential election debate was an embarrassment for a clearly cognitively challenged Joe Biden.

While Donald Trump’s themes were mostly negative and both candidates were churlish and petty, Trump was dominant throughout.

Typically, bold and hyperbolic, Trump boasted he could bring the Ukraine War to and end before he is inaugurated.

He hammered the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the “maybe 20 million” illegal immigrants who had crossed the southern border as iconic failures of Biden’s administration.

Biden struggled to complete sentences and often lost his train of thought.

The first observation post debate from Sky News Australia host Kieran Gilbert was that the Democrats would be looking for a new Presidential candidate.

Abortion was a flashpoint early with Biden declaring he would restore Roe v Wade, which is a court decision and not something a President can undo.

Challenged on whether he would stop all abortions, Trump said he supported the Abortion pill which poisons unborn babies in the early stages of development.

Biden, probably not knowing what he was doing, broke with his party’s support for abortion-to-birth. (Australia’s state Parliaments have all passed abortion-to-birth laws in recent years).

Trump rightly hammered the fact that the Democratic Governor Ralph Northam horrifically supported infanticide.

While Trump won, his negativity, the unease many voters feel about his narcissism and his failure to project vision could leave him vulnerable to a replacement candidate for Joe Biden.

If the November election is between Trump and Biden, Trump wins hands down.

The idea Biden has the cognitive and even physical capability to last until November is fantasy.