In case you missed the American presidential debate on Thursday, here’s an analogy to help you understand how it went.

Picture yourself seated in a gaudy circus tent. The headline act is a Roman-style gladiator fight with a lion. An aged but straight-backed legionnaire saunters into the ring. Then, out comes the animal. You wince. It’s an old thing that needs to be tugged along by the chain of a beastmaster. His eyes are greyed over. His fur is patchy and his arthritic limp hints at why: he’s too stiff to groom himself properly. His bones stick out like those of your elderly cat’s did in the final years of its life.