Less than two months before the presidential elections in the United States of America, the vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the former president, Donald Trump, faced off in their first and possibly only debate on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. The two contestants had never met before, and the occasion was widely billed by pundits as an opportunity for the American public and the world to learn more about the policies that Ms Harris and Mr Trump would pursue if they won the election. Yet in 90 minutes of sparring, neither major party candidate offered any fresh insight into how they would approach either domestic challenges, such as soaring grocery bills and climate change, or global crises like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Instead, tens of millions of viewers in the US and around the world witnessed the latest episode of the predictable reality television that masquerades as electoral politics in the world’s second-largest democracy. Ms Harris and Mr Trump traded barbs, each accusing the other of weakening democracy, damaging the US economy, and making the world less safe. There were bizarre moments, from Mr Trump claiming, without evidence, that Haitian immigrants were eating their neighbours’ pets to Ms Harris effectively blaming her opponent for handing Afghanistan over to the Taliban, when it was her administration, under President Joe Biden, that carried through the chaotic US withdrawal from Kabul.

Far too often, the debate felt like a sequel that repeated a script that the US and the world have seen too many times before. Ms Harris accused Mr Trump of being soft on Russia, while Mr Trump blamed Ms Harris for a porous southern border. Neither pushed the other — and the moderators did not either — to flesh out exactly how they would control inflation, increase jobs, or end the wars in Europe and the Middle East that the US is deely involved in. By most accounts, Ms Harris delivered a stronger debate performance than her rival. But US voters and a world affected significantly by America’s choices deserve better than such a performance. In the past, presidential debates have often had little impact on voter choices, although there have been exceptions. It is unclear whether the aftermath of Tuesday’s debate will be any different. What is clear is that irrespective of which candidate experts declare as the winner of the debate, US voters and those observing the election around the world lost out.