Nearly a month since my “peak Kamala” call, we have some interesting action via Polymarket. First, her 53% DNC edge unraveled as expected. Now, we have a post-debate bump up to 49% from a low of 45% just yesterday (still off my peak call). It is now essentially a toss up according to the prediction market bettors. I happen to agree.

I have no idea where it goes from here.

Some takeaways from last night… keeping in mind this is all just my opinion, you certainly don’t have to agree with it and we can still share a mug of suds even if that’s the case:

• I don’t think it is in either candidate’s interest to go through another one of those debates between now and November.

• Harris executed her strategy last night quite well - namely, balk at giving any real answer to most of the questions and simply keep running the “orange man bad” playbook.

• Trump did not do well and that’s putting it mildly. He badly misplayed what should have been a winning hand if he could have stayed focused on the economy. But he got rattled and it showed. Partly driving that was an antagonistic environment, but he’s been calling everything “rigged” since he came on the scene. His treatment shouldn’t have been a surprise and he should have been better prepared for it.

• Moderator criticism is fair. It was fascinating watching Norah O’Donnell explaining during the ‘pre-game’ of the CBS simulcast that fact-checking is not the moderator’s job shortly before the moderators willingly fact-checked one of the candidates numerous times but not the other. ABC’s team did a bad job and I can’t imagine independent voters couldn’t see it. Both of these candidates lied or spun half-truths the entire night. If you’re going to be a referee, you have to call it both ways. That did not happen.

• Furthermore, I do not remember hearing a single question about the federal debt. I find that to be, frankly, the worst offense of the evening and that’s again on ABC’s moderator desk. We have a very serious debt crisis in this country with interest expense on that debt exploding because the US Treasury Department couldn’t muster locking in low rates on longer term debt obligations during Biden’s term. We are all going to pay for this in some capacity. It would have been marvelous to hear what the plan is…

• You don’t own enough Gold.

And that’s it. That’s the take. Happy Wednesday!