by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- After the conclusion of Thursday night's final debate between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden, the candidates are entering the final stretch of the most important U.S. presidential race in decades.
With millions of Americans still unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the clock is ticking toward the Election Day on Nov. 3.
FINAL DEBATE
Due to the pandemic and the resulting high unemployment, experts said the United States is likely to see record turnout this election season, and Thursday night's final debate was each candidate's last chance to reach voters.
While the candidates covered a variety of topics, the two that overwhelmingly concerned Americans were the economy and the pandemic.
"The debate will matter a lot because it is Trump's last opportunity to reach a very large audience," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
Thursday night's debate was trumpeted by analysts as one of the best debates in decades, with candidates focusing on the issues -- a far cry from the first debate, in which Trump constantly interrupted Biden and Biden called Trump a "clown" and told him to "shut up."
Experts said Trump missed a golden opportunity in the first debate to tout his pre-pandemic economy -- the strongest in decades -- in front of a massive audience of 73 million viewers.
But the president did a sharp about-face in Thursday night's debate, when he made his points and allowed Biden to make his.
The candidates faced off about topics ranging from the economy to foreign policy to COVID-19, with Biden accusing Trump of allowing over 200,000 Americans to die from the virus, saying Trump's "ineptitude" caused the virus to spread in the United States.
Biden's plan to defeat the virus was a possible mask wearing mandate, possibly more shutdowns and measures such as installing Plexiglas as barriers in restaurants.
Many businesses have already been taking such precautions for months, and much of the population are already wearing masks, which restaurants nationwide require customers to wear to enter their establishments. Biden also mentioned the need for more contact tracing.
In sharp contrast, Trump was adamant that the economy, schools and businesses should open up, saying that remaining closed will destroy the nation.
"We can't lock ourselves up in a basement," Trump said. "We can't close up our nation or else we won't have a nation."
Ford O'Connell, adjunct professor at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, told Xinhua that Trump's best moments in the debate were when he accused Biden of being a career politician who is "all talk and no action."
O'Connell said the key thing to watch in the days leading up to Nov. 3 is whether Trump can capitalize on this point.
"The Trump campaign's job now is to use this debate to its advantage. Because people have short term memories," O'Connell said. "The key is how does the Trump campaign use this debate to its benefit."
Snap polls after the debate from CNN and YouGov, a global public opinion and data company, found that viewers believe Biden won the debate.
POLLS TIGHTENING
While Trump was recently behind by 11 percent in RealClearPolitics' average of polls, he is catching up fast, with the political news site's average of polls tightening to a 9-percent lead earlier this month and on Thursday a 7.7-percent lead.
But it remains unknown whether there is still enough time to catch up to Biden this late in the game, and some battleground states show the two candidates neck-in-neck.
Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua that in the final days of this election season, Biden will try to keep voters' focus on the pandemic and everything that has happened as a result of it -- the economic recession, disruption of normal life, work and school.
There are a number of things to watch in the final days before the elections, Galdieri said.
"He (Biden) wants the elections to be a referendum on Trump's handling of the pandemic," Galdieri added, while "Trump will try to make this about anything else." Enditem
