WORCESTER, Mass. - A pair of political observers say Thursday’s debate was more in line with what should have happened the first time President Donald Trump and Joe Biden met on stage.

Holy Cross Professor Alex Hindman says it touched on many policy issues, and gave viewers a chance to see what each candidate is about. However, the election is less than 2 weeks away, and Hindman says 50 million people have already voted. So we likely won't see many voters swayed. 

“There's such a small part of the elector that is still up for grabs. Based on the latest numbers it's about half the number of undecided voters in this election cycle that there were in 2016. It got out substantive issues but It's so late in the process coupled with early voting we maybe seeing it somewhat ineffective,” Hindman said.

Clark professor Rob Boatright says each candidate had their own strategy, but it didn't include anything the viewer didn't already know.

He says something dramatic would have needed to happen to change the overall dynamic of the race. 

Dr. Boatright says neither candidate is an expert debater, but says the interesting thing Joe Biden did was bring up the controversy surrounding his son. 

“He tried to defuse all of this stuff about his son and his son's entanglements in the Ukraine pretty early. He was the one who brought that up which I think surprised a lot of people. It is quite possible that the Biden camp knows that's not going to move the polls and that the more they could get Trump to talk about it the more they could get him off the policy stuff so it was kind of an interesting reversal to what people thought believed was going to happen,” Boatright said.

Boatright says the two biggest things now which could impact the election don't really involve the candidates: the vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and if there is some further progress in a COVID-19 stimulus bill.