Times Opinion asked 14 of our columnists and contributors to watch the presidential debate on Tuesday night and assess who won and who lost. We also asked them to weigh in on the quality of the debate. Were the candidates inspiring, or was their face-off a depressing sign of everything that’s wrong with American politics?

Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought of the event. In a new feature, readers can score the debate, too, by dropping a pin on the scorecard to see how they stack up against other readers, as well as our contributors.

Who won and why

Kristen Soltis Anderson, contributing Opinion writer The debate was in some ways more substantive than I expected, but the bar was dreadfully low. Kamala Harris has sought to avoid being tied to the current state of affairs in our country by treating Donald Trump as the de facto incumbent, as he has dominated the unpleasantness of the past decade of our politics. Trump repeatedly aided her in that quest Tuesday night.

Binyamin Appelbaum, member of the editorial board Harris. She kept Trump on the defensive for much of the night, and she was effective in communicating that Trump is both dangerous and ridiculous. Where she continues to struggle is in making the case for Kamala Harris.

Josh Barro, author of the newsletter Very Serious Harris was well prepared, forward-looking and — unlike Hillary Clinton in 2016 — effective at positioning herself as more in touch with ordinary Americans than Trump. He was rambling, bitter and too distracted to drive home his strongest attacks or effectively tie Harris to President Biden’s record.