The debate featured “an extraordinarily aggressive, top-to-bottom attack,” Politico wrote. “Over and over,” one candidate’s “tactic of choice was a gut-level punch.” An “alpha-male display,” Britain’s left-wing Guardian headlined. The dominant candidate’s style, CNN agreed, was “put your head down, charge forward, and don’t stop.”

No, those were not comments about last Thursday’s earliest-in-history presidential debate. They were analyses made 12 years ago after the October 2012 vice presidential debate between Paul Ryan and his much more aggressive opponent, Joe Biden.