This perspective is not necessarily wrong, but it is decidedly journalistic.
Most viewers experience the debate in a different way.
As a debate unfolds, viewers tend to render two judgments. The second is whether one of the candidates is the better choice. The race is close, and the number of undecided or weakly committed voters is relatively high. The debates are even more important in the minds of uncommitted voters. Thirty-nine percent of them claim that they are looking toward the debates as a time to make their decision.