Can any of last night's Democratic presidential candidates beat Donald Trump? Er... No

For a political junkie like me, yesterday night was a dream: I watched the Democratic presidential debate on TV, and streamed the first Canadian federal leaders’ debate on the computer. (You can say a prayer for my wife and son in weeks ahead!)

Let’s focus on the Democratic presidential debate in Houston, Texas. It’s the third debate between the political hopefuls (with more to come), and the first one to include the ten leading presidential candidates who met the party’s polling and fundraising criteria. Last night’s participants were: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang.

While all ten presidential candidates are obviously on the left of the political spectrum, the divisions are becoming more distinctive. Booker, Castro, Harris, O’Rourke, Sanders, Warren and Yang are mostly taking left-wing and/or radical left positions on issues like taxes, the size of government, social spending and foreign policy. Buttigieg and Klobuchar are positioning themselves as centrists, which is a more traditional route to curry favour with voters. Biden is also a centrist, but he’s the only candidate truly attempting to meld his viewpoints with the overwhelmingly left-leaning party base.

There were a few interesting moments and lines. Castro castigated Biden about “forgetting” his role in former president Barack Obama’s administration. It initially worked, because Biden has made several gaffes during the campaign. (One of his worst was a false war story about a U.S. Navy captain, and his supposed refusal to accept a Silver Star from the former vice-president for his heroism. Although he claimed, “This is the God’s truth. My word as a Biden,” the Washington Post’s Matt Viser and Greg Jaffe tore it apart in an Aug. 29 piece.) But it quickly fell apart when he kept repeating the line, and Biden calmly pushed back.

Yang, a lawyer and entrepreneur who has been the biggest surprise of this race, took a gamble and introduced a plan during the debate. He announced that he would be giving a “Freedom Dividend of $1000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families.” This stipend will obviously help several families in need, and sort of fits with his nonprofit organisation ‘Venture for America,’ which helps create jobs to revitalise cities. But it was a gimmicky move that really didn’t belong on a debate podium, and could end up backfiring on him.

O’Rourke, meanwhile, piped up at one point during a discussion of gun control saying, “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15.” Though it excited the partisan liberal crowd, this juvenile statement was yet another example of why he isn’t ready for prime time. Not that Harris’s quip that President Donald Trump “can go back to watching Fox News” was much better, mind you.

Overall, Biden had his best debate performance, and won. He handled the issues in a calm, balanced manner. His answers were straightforward, confident and mostly non-controversial. He didn’t take the bait too often when his ideas, policies and gaffes were thrown back at him (which is one of his major weaknesses as a public figure). He also handled the issue of Obama – who has been criticised at times by some candidates – quite well, stating that the “good and bad” of his administration was beneficial to America.

That’s all well and good. But there’s no way on God’s green earth that Trump is going to worry about his re-election bid based on what happened in last night’s debate.

He knows the Democrats are in total disarray. In particular, the ideological divide between left and far-left is more pronounced than ever before. Former presidents like Obama and Bill Clinton, and party stalwarts like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, are viewed as political elites who thrive in the musty swamp of Washington. This has helped left-wing candidates like Sanders and Warren blaze new political trails in recent presidential primaries, and emboldened party radicals to promote and support policies that are completely out of touch with average Americans.

Even when the party nominally comes together behind one winning presidential candidate at its national convention next year, the political divisions will likely remain very deep and divided. It will be quite the task to repair this damage.

If anything, Trump is going to gain more confidence as the leading candidates and also-rans continue to tear into one another and jockey for support. It’s only going to get worse for the Democrats, and better for the sitting Republican president.