The Optimism and Anxiety Ahead of Tonight’s Debate

For Beth Anne Riches of South Bend, Ind., the presidential debate tonight between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump can’t come soon enough.

“I want to see the prosecutor come out and get under the former guy’s skin,” Riches, 62, said. “I think I’ll fix myself a nice cocktail (or two) and enjoy watching him lose his cool.”

In Anacortes, Wash., Shay Schual-Berke, 72, a former Democratic state lawmaker, is so excited about the debate that she and fellow members of a progressive group she’s part of decided to turn their regular monthly meeting tonight into a watch party with popcorn and cookies.

And in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Patricia Harris was feeling confident that Harris would “eviscerate” Trump — and avenge Hillary Clinton while she’s at it.

“I know the kinds of hopes that are riding on her because I’ve heard it expressed over and over,” Harris, 76, a former chair of her county’s Democratic Party who is part of a Facebook group that has raised money for the vice president, said. “I just hope for the collective psyche of the nation that she really does deliver.”

Last week, I asked you all how you were feeling about this debate, reprising a question I asked ahead of the fateful meeting between Trump and President Biden in June. Back then, I heard from confident supporters of Trump — and a flood of Biden supporters who were practically hiding under the bed with worry.