Debate watchers in the Biden and Trump camps seem to agree on something. Biden had a bad night

At the end of the 90 minutes, some Democrats said what partisan people say to put things in the best light possible: It’s still early. One debate does not necessarily influence the nation. Judge him by what he has done and wants to do, not by how he says things.

Biden “just didn’t have the spark we needed tonight,” said Rosemarie DeAngelus, a Democrat from South Portland, Maine, from her viewing party at Broadway Bowl. Trump, she said, showed “more courage and more strength,” even though he told a lot of lies, she said.

Fellow Biden supporter and bowling alley visitor Lynn Miller, from nearby Old Orchard Beach, said, “It’s like someone gave Trump an Adderall and I don’t think they gave Joe any.” (The drug is used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.)

“I’ve never seen Trump seem so coherent,” Miller said. “And I hate to say it, but Joe seemed a little strange. But I still support him over Trump, because Trump lied about everything that happened.”

Trump supporters certainly agreed that the difference in energy and cohesion between the candidates was striking. Wearing her red MAGA cap at a festive pro-Trump party in the Detroit suburb of Novi, Bonnie Call said of Biden, “He just can’t think on his feet at all. President Trump is just un.”

In McAllen, Texas, near the border with Mexico, the London Bar & Grill is normally loud on a day just before the weekend, but many customers were silent as they absorbed the debate from the TV screens. Here Biden supporters, Trump supporters and undecided voters mingled.

Among them, 40-year-old Vance Gonzales, a moderate Democrat, said the debate convinced him that “we need another Democratic candidate, frankly, because this is not competitive.” He said of Biden: “He has no point in anything. I find it disappointing.”

Marco Perez, 53, voted for Biden in the last election and expressed frustration with what he heard and saw. “I want to hear more facts, more action instead of more finger pointing, more accusations or false accusations,” he said.

His girlfriend Virginia Lopez, who was sitting next to him, still couldn’t figure it out and didn’t know who she would support in November. She heard snippy but unsatisfactory answers from the Republican. “Trump is just evasive in all the answers and he’s just lying,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like a real debate.”

Biden? “I just feel like he’s too old,” she said.

At the bar, Hector Mercado, 72, a veteran wearing a U.S. military beret, was a conspicuous patron as he listened intently to the debate. Although he was a Democrat for several years, he switched parties under Ronald Reagan, a Republican.

Mercado heard Biden accuse Trump of making derogatory comments about veterans, but it did not affect his support for Trump. “Yes, he said some bad things about veterans in the early days,” he said of Trump. But now he says, ‘No, I support the veterans and I’ve never had a problem with him. I got an increase in my VA disability when Trump was president.

Biden’s performance left him cold. “I think Trump is stronger,” he said, “and Biden is a little bit weak.”

At a migrant shelter in Tijuana, just across the Mexican border, people, mostly from southern Mexico, seeking asylum in the U.S. watched the debate, sitting on folding chairs in front of a screen on the wall.

The migrants, most of whom have been waiting months for their appointments in that process, stared blankly at the screen as a Spanish-language version of the debate played, watching an American democratic ritual in motion.

Andrea, who did not want to give her last name because of threats of violence at home, has been living in the shelter for nine months. Her takeaway from the debate: “Well, I feel like people in the United States don’t like Mexicans anymore.”

At Hula Hula, a tiki bar in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, patrons cheered wildly when Trump mentioned their city — even though the topic came as the Republican complained about lawlessness. Biden supporter Amy Pottinger of Seattle said the Democratic president performed best when Trump angered him.

“Once he started talking about Roe v. Wade, it was like Biden woke up and was here,” she said.

At the same Chicago bar where guests voiced their displeasure over Biden’s missteps — the M Lounge in the South Loop — the president scored with this jab at Trump: “You have the morals of an alley cat.”

“Wow!” said the viewers there.

But at a Democratic viewing party in downtown Atlanta, it was a nerve-wracking evening.

“I’m so nervous, I feel like my baby is going on stage,” Sen. Nikki Merritt of Georgia said early on, patting her stomach as if she had butterflies.

Technicians struggled with sound and video. During a power outage, the crowd chanted “Let’s Go Joe!”

“I want to hear Joe Biden talk to the voters and ignore the crazy man in the room,” said Matthew Wilson, vice chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party.

But the man they called crazy could not be ignored.

Associated Press journalists Charlie Arbogast in Chicago; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Gregory Bull in Tijuana, Mexico; Mike Householder in Detroit; Robert Bukaty in South Portland, Maine; Mike Pesoli in Washington, D.C.; and Lindsey Wasson in Seattle contributed to this report.