Who won the first US presidential debate? Both candidates were expected to play to their individual strengths – charisma for Trump and competence for Clinton. As a result, the pitch ahead of the debate was that the low expectations weighed heavily in Trump´s favor. Competence rarely electrifies an audience. But, this prediction proved to be wrong. Many viewers, me included, declared Clinton the winner of the debate and the media consensus is that Clinton won the first presidential debate because she was better prepared than Trump. Competence saw off charisma.

There were, of course, many other forces at work in . . .