Democratic debate: America needed leadership from Biden and Sanders. Instead, it got the same old politics

Analysis: Amid exceptional circumstances of coronavirus outbreak, writes Andrew Buncombe, this felt like the same old bickering and arguments

Missing the point: Sunday’s Democratic debate proved to be nothing more than a spat (Getty)

When they walked to the podium and smilingly touched elbows, obeying the best coronavirus safety protocol, one wondered if this was going to be it.

Would this be the evening that a nation, and indeed the world, anxious and traumatised by how Covid-19 has so utterly turned everything upside down, was comforted by statesmanlike leadership?

Would this be the occasion when two politicians reached beyond easy blows and jabs, and filled the need for a comforter-in-chief Donald Trump has so stunningly failed to be?