As a pundit, I am supposed to be quick on the take. Quick with the analysis, the context and the implications.

With the debate having just ended and a mere two hours until my filing deadline, I have done my best to rise to the occasion. However, in honest disclosure, I need to say that I am almost shaken. For perhaps the first time, I am identifying with anyone who has struggled with PTSD.

Simply put, in endless years of political engagement and observation and commentary, I have never witnessed anything close to what we just experienced. Many years from now, historians will record Sept. 29, 2020, as the date the American political system bottomed out.

That was not a Presidential debate. It was a juvenile embarrassment, ironically featuring three white men well into their 70s. Chris Wallace clocked in as the youngster at a spry 72 years of age.

Of course, it is a mistake to assign equal responsibility for this hot mess. Let’s take the three actors in turn.

Wallace remarked before the debate that his goal was to not make himself part of the story. That is a worthy ambition for a moderator. Yet, despite good intentions, he became a significant storyline for his inability to control the affair. That said, I would not have wished this assignment on Jim Lehrer or Walter Cronkite or Solomon himself.

Donald Trump showed up determined to do his best Mike Tyson imitation. He is a predator by instinct, but turned the New York bullying affect up to full throttle thinking he could break down his supposedly feeble opponent. No doubt, his base lapped it up. If Trump has shown us nothing else in these past four years, his base is everything and the only thing to him. It is a very open question as to whether anyone beyond that base was impressed. Or even able to countenance it. Thankfully, most would say, America has never seen a political figure quite like this President. Every outsized, reprobate element of his persona was on full display.

Which brings us to Joe Biden. He will never go down as a great orator or debater. He is unlikely to be asked to coach a high school debate team. No amount of preparation could have readied him for that particular lion’s den. For sure, he had his lapses. He let more than one hanging softball go by. He wandered once or twice into territory he wanted to avoid. Nonetheless, he acquitted himself and probably well better than that. Biden’s overriding task in this initial encounter was to show himself a plausible President and something other than the ailing, frail caricature Trump has been trying to paint. Mission accomplished – if not with sterling A grades, then with an acceptable, gentleman’s B.

Biden was also the beneficiary of the expectations game that is a part of any high-level political debate. In a number of ways, the entire Trump strategy is self-defeating. He rails against the unreliability of mail ballots, running the risk of deterring some of his older-than-average constituency that is disproportionately likely to use them under the public health circumstances. Similarly, through this drumbeat of attacks on Biden’s stamina and mental capacity, he effectively lowered the expectations bar for Biden in this faceoff.

Which brings us to the key question as to the impact of this on those remaining 37 undecided voters spread out across the country. Seriously, the number is greater than that. But how much greater? Some recent poll purportedly indicated that 11% of the country was still undecided in some form. To which I call – well, you know the word, but I can’t write it in a family publication.

The number is half that at most. Further, a segment of those undecided voters will be terminally unable to make a decision and simply sit out the election. Trump prevailed in 2016 due to those late-deciding voters breaking very strongly his way. But that is when he was the ultimate anti-establishment candidate, promising to stick it to the man. (Or to the woman in that case.) He is now running as the incumbent President. He is “the man” and the chaos is far less inviting.

Post-debate polls and focus groups will show what effect it had on that small universe of still wavering voters. The conjecture here is that Biden benefited more than Trump; doubly so to the extent those remaining undecideds are women.

Next up on Wednesday of this coming week is the Vice Presidential debate. That can be counted on to be appreciably more civil as it can’t go in any other direction. It may well be entertaining, but of rather little consequence.

As to the two remaining Presidential debates, there have to be some question marks about them in the immediate aftermath of this discomforting, humiliating evening. Pity the remaining two moderators, Steve Scully of C-SPAN and NBC’s Kristen Welker. I wouldn’t blame either for soon developing a suspicious sore throat.

If the polls continue to be problematic for Trump, and if he gets no bounce or a negative bounce from tonight’s performance, where does he go in the next two encounters? Does he all of a sudden become reasoned, understated and polite? Does he let go on the incessant interrupting? Does he adhere to the agreed-upon rules? Does he even pledge to honor the election results? That is all quite hard to imagine.

Back to those historians and their recount of this election years into the future: While in the here and now we are focused on the ups and downs of the campaign (even with the polls indicating unusual stability), those distant accounts will note this debate for one reason only – as a complete breakdown of all standards. It will be remembered for nothing other than that; nor should it be.

I will close this quick reflection piece with a text received about an hour into the debacle. The sender is among my closest friends; she is a devoted mother to two wonderful kids, ages 10 and 11.

My friend wrote, “This is beyond awful. It is embarrassing to watch with the kids. Had to turn it off. I can’t let them think this is an acceptable way for a leader to behave.”

What she said.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. His column appears regularly on Sundays in ColoradoPolitics. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann