The two central questions going into Thursday night’s CNN-sponsored presidential campaign debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden were:

• Is Biden too old and not agile enough for the job?
• Is Trump too dangerous and too prone to lying?

Biden flunked. He stumbled on statistics and was often inaudible. He was continually on the defensive and seldom was precise and sharp in his responses.

Trump was like a boxer who fully grasped stagecraft. He did not lose his composure, yet he relentlessly pursued President Biden and portrayed him as weak, criminal and a failed domestic and international leader.

But Donald Trump refused to answer half the questions posed by the moderators, and those Trump did answer were often dishonest or turned into exaggerated claims of how great Trump’s presidency (2017-2021) was.

Trump blamed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan on Biden, even though Trump had dithered when the war in Afghanistan was his responsibility. Trump claimed his tax cuts and deregulation caused some, if not all, of the success of today’s strong U.S. economy.

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Trump trotted out his lie again about the stolen presidential election of 2020, which he lost. He once again claimed the Jan. 6, 2021, attempted insurrection at the U.S. capital was a “peaceful demonstration.”

Trump looks 10 years or more younger than Biden, and Trump was verbally effective in landing his exaggerated punches on an often-bewildered President Biden.

There is a small history of previous presidential election debates where the incumbent president, or an incumbent vice president, has had a rougher time of it, especially in the first debate.

Thus, Vice President Richard Nixon had a tougher time with U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy in 1960. President Barack Obama lost his first debate against challenger Mitt Romney in 2012. Gerald Ford had difficulty debating Jimmy Carter. Donald Trump lost his first debate with challenger Joe Biden in 2020, and there are other such cases.

Supporters of Joe Biden in 2024 are offering the excuse Biden was suffering from a bad cold. Biden himself said, “It’s hard to debate a liar.”

Meanwhile, many concerned Democrats wondered aloud whether the Democratic Party National Convention, scheduled to be held in Chicago on Aug. 19-22, could offer a way to replace Biden as the 2024 Democratic Party nominee. The editorial board of the New York Times has called on him to step aside. Other Democrats are expressing their concerns.

These Democrats yearn for a younger more articulate Democratic presidential candidate who could better fight inflation and deal with Russia, China, Israel, Gaza, the Palestinians and Hamas.

Names such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are among those seriously floated.

The Trump presidential campaign cashed in on the massive press attention given to President Biden’s stumbling performance in the debate. The CNN flash polls of debate watchers scored it a 67% to 33% runaway victory for Donald Trump.

Trump delivered nonstop attacks and boasts. For example: “My presidency was the best in history. Yours (Biden’s) has been the worst. Terrible, even criminal.”

Subdued, sometimes mumbling, and constantly looking as if he was “on the ropes” in a prizefight, Biden delivered gentlemanly rebuttals to Trump’s many attacks yet often got lost when listing his own accomplishments.

Trump refused to say he would honor the results of the upcoming presidential election in 2024. He claimed he did not have “sex with a porn star.” He denied ever saying dead U.S. soldiers were “losers and suckers.” He evaded any responsibility for the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and the mob seeking to hang Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump was all Trump. He was aggressive, blustering, evasive and narcissistic.

But Joe Biden looked like an aging baseball pitcher who has lost both his fastball and his curveball.

The next day, at a North Carolina rally, Joe Biden acknowledged he was no longer young and could not debate as well as he used to. But, he said, “I know how to tell the truth.” He also said, “I know right from wrong.”

Biden acknowledge that, when you get knocked down as he had been at the debate, you must get up again and fight. He pledged to do that. He concluded, “I know how to do this job.”

The low point of this debate came when the debaters boasted about their golf games. Trump said he won two local golf course championships (at his own golf course, it turned out).

Biden noted his golf handicap was down to six when he was vice president.

That exchange came across as childish, akin to adults boasting about performing well in a long-ago little league baseball game. The two men should have been talking about presidential character and ability, not their golf scores.

The bottom line on this debate was: A pumped up, aggressive Donald Trump will march confidently to his nomination at the July 15 Milwaukee Republican National Convention, and he probably picked up some undecided voters — and he reinvigorated his MAGA (Make America Great Again) base of supporters.

Meanwhile Democrats are rightly worried about Biden’s “age and agility” challenges. He lost his voice and some of his base. He is asking America to let him not just be the president for the next 6-and-a-half months, but to serve another  four long years until January 2029.

Democratic leaders will, and this will be awkward, agonize about what is best both for their political party and the country. Obama and the Clintons may weigh in, among others.

Democrats are understandably worried. Biden’s presidential approval ratings have been at low 30% or so levels for more than a year. The American people do not think the country is going in the right direction. Above all, Biden gets low grades for dealing with the immigration problems at the southern border with Mexico.

Trump has high disapproval ratings as well. He is a divisive — not unifying — force in American politics. Yet he is charismatic. Trump knows how to fire up crowds and get press coverage. On the other hand, the earnest and unusually sincere Biden is often boring and has little or no stagecraft skills.

This is not the election most Americans want. Many people in both political parties — both Democrats and Republicans — would like to see alternate candidates. Is it too late for that?

Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy are columnists who write about Colorado and national politics.