OK, THAT WAS NORMAL. Right? That made sense. That felt somewhat right. We learned things. There was not much shouting. We didn't go to bed gnashing our teeth, or smashing our fists into walls. THE FINAL TILT between JOE BIDEN and President DONALD TRUMP was refreshingly standard -- and that was good. The two men were forced to talk in turn, and the moderator, KRISTEN WELKER, did a bang-up job on the largest stage of any political journalist's career. And, for that, she got well-deserved plaudits. OF COURSE, the bar for BIDEN and TRUMP was low. It might have been skimming the floor. FOR TRUMP, that meant not acting completely and embarrassingly out of control, interrupting at every turn and disrespecting the debate rules. He reminded us that he was not a typical politician -- but at times, he almost looked like one, which was OK for the moment, because we know he isn't and don't need to be reminded with a bullhorn every three seconds, as we have been for five years. Sometimes people want to hear information, not static. For Phish fans, sometimes "Fast Enough for You" is good, and for Dead Heads, when "Space" turns into "Stella Blue," it's occasionally centering. NYT'S MATT FLEGENHEIMER and MAGGIE HABERMAN put it this way: "Before the president's last, best chance to change the trajectory of his re-election bid, his mandate on Thursday evening was at once clear and complicated: Be less like Donald J. Trump. It can be said that he tried, by his standard." FOR BIDEN, that meant delivering cogent arguments, tripping up only once (saying he wants to get rid of the oil industry, rather than just cutting subsidies) and not getting sucked into TRUMP'S vortex. THEY ABLY CONTRASTED their general governing and substantive theories. This is what we wanted here. Right? MORE THAN 45 MILLION AMERICANS have already voted -- so, for them, watching the Giants-Eagles game may have been a better use of time. THE BIG QUESTION … DAVID SIDERS: "Trump comes out strong. But is it too late?" HOW IT PLAYED … NATIONAL FRONTS … NYT, two columns, with photos by the great ERIN SCHAFF: "TRUMP AND BIDEN DIVERGE SHARPLY IN VISIONS FOR U.S." … WAPO: "Contentious and broad final faceoff" … WSJ: "Debate Intensifies Race to Finish as Trump, Biden Clash" JOHN HARRIS column: "This Was a Pretty Good Debate. Who Cares?": "There was a rough consensus in the political class before Thursday night's presidential debate about what both candidates and the moderator needed to do to avoid a disaster. Defying precedent, both candidates and the moderator did those things. "The result: No disaster. No national embarrassment with a debate that hurtled off the rails. And likely no big alterations in a race that has stayed basically stable even through 2020's twin traumas of pandemic and racial unrest and will finally end just eleven days from now. "Instead, the final presidential debate seemed to carry a vague whiff of normal. Was that for real? Or have expectations corroded so comprehensively that anything that doesn't reek as acridly abnormal now seems inoffensive, or even the slightest bit pleasant?" RYAN LIZZA'S TAKE: "Hunter Biden wins the debate" CONTOURS OF THE RACE REMAIN THE SAME … WAPO'S DAN BALZ: "Trump did what he came to do in Nashville, but Biden was ready for what came at him": "With time running out and trailing in the polls, President Trump needed the strongest possible showing in his final debate against Joe Biden. But in the face of a series of attacks, the former vice president parried the president with a strong performance that is likely to leave the presidential campaign little changed from where it was at the start." WaPo WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: "Mr. Trump was both better prepared and more disciplined than in the first debate, and if he loses on Nov. 3 he will wish he had done that the first time. He offered the best defense we've heard him make of his coronavirus effort, focusing on the vaccines in development, his mobilization of resources in the spring, and the need to balance protection of the vulnerable with reopening the country." DAY 95: Speaker NANCY PELOSI told her leadership team on a private conference call Thursday afternoon that Democratic lawmakers have been telling her they don't want to vote on a Covid relief bill before the election unless Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL was going to put it on the floor of the Senate before Nov. 3. This is a new insight into what's driving PELOSI in these final days. -- WAPO'S ERICA WERNER and JEFF STEIN catalogue angst about Washington's Most Eager Man, Treasury Secretary STEVEN MNUCHIN. 11 DAYS until ELECTION DAY. Good Friday morning. ICYMI: The first edition of Transition Playbook is here. WSJ VS. WSJ … WAPO'S @mattviser: "Hard to imagine as stark of a difference between the news side and opinion side of the Wall Street Journal than the two pieces that will run tomorrow on Hunter Biden's venture in China. Read them in this order:" -- NEWS: "Hunter Biden's Ex-Business Partner Alleges Father Knew About Venture," by Andrew Duehren and James Areddy: "The venture—set up in 2017 after Mr. Biden left the vice presidency and before his presidential campaign—never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Corporate records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden." -- OPINION: "The Biden 'Family Legacy,'" by Kimberley Strassel: "[A] former business partner of Hunter Biden's has come forward to provide the ugly details of the 'family brand.' Tony Bobulinski, a Navy veteran and institutional investor, has provided the Journal emails and text messages associated with his time as CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, a venture between the Bidens and CEFC China Energy, a Shanghai-based conglomerate. That correspondence corroborates and expands on emails recently published by the New York Post, which says they come from a Hunter laptop." IN MARK MEADOWS' OLD CONGRESSIONAL SEAT … THE BULWARK: "Madison Cawthorn's Racist Website: GOP wunderkind attacks opponent's attempt to 'ruin white males,'" by Tim Miller: "A new attack website put up by the Madison Cawthorn campaign includes an explicitly racist broadside against his opponent, Moe Davis (D-N.C.), for associating himself with people who want to 'ruin white males.' "For real. The website, MoeTaxes.com, takes aim at Davis over his purported association with a local journalist, Tom Fiedler. It says that Fiedler 'quit his academia job in Boston to work for non-white males, like Cory Booker who aims to ruin white males.'" -- CAWTHORN previously took smiling selfies at Hitler's bunker. ON THE GROUND -- "Trump Campaign Draws Rebuke for Surveilling Philadelphia Voters," by NYT's Danny Hakim and Nick Corasaniti in Philadelphia: "The Trump campaign has been videotaping Philadelphia voters while they deposit their ballots in drop boxes, leading Pennsylvania's attorney general to warn this week that the campaign's actions fall outside of permitted poll watching practices and could amount to illegal voter intimidation. "The campaign made a formal complaint to city officials on Oct. 16, saying a campaign representative had surveilled voters depositing two or three ballots at drop boxes, instead of only their own. The campaign called the conduct 'blatant violations of the Pennsylvania election code,' according to a letter from a lawyer representing the Trump campaign that was reviewed by The New York Times. The campaign included photos of three voters who it claimed were dropping off multiple ballots." NYT -- "'Warning flare': New swing-state data shows massive Democratic early-vote lead," by Marc Caputo and Zach Montellaro: "Democrats have opened up a yawning gap in early voting over Republicans in six of the most crucial battleground states — but that only begins to tell the story of their advantage heading into Election Day. "In a more worrisome sign for Republicans, Democrats are also turning out more low-frequency and newly registered voters than the GOP, according to internal data shared with POLITICO by Hawkfish, a new Democratic research firm, which was reviewed by Republicans and independent experts. "The turnout data does not mean Donald Trump will lose to Joe Biden. Both sides are bracing for a close race and a giant wave of Republicans to vote in person on Nov. 3. Yet the turnout disparity with new and less-reliable voters has forced Republican political operatives to take notice. 'It's a warning flare,' said veteran Republican strategist Scott Reed." POLITICO YOWZA … TRUMP'S LEAD in KANSAS in the new NYT/Siena poll is 7 points. He won Kansas by 20 in 2016. Democratic Senate candidate BARBARA BOLLIER is losing to Kansas GOP Rep. ROGER MARSHALL 46-42. The poll GREEN WAVE -- "Biden carries big cash advantage into final weeks of election," by Zach Montellaro: "Former Vice President Joe Biden is carrying a cash advantage of more than $100 million over President Donald Trump into the final weeks of the election, according to newly filed campaign finance reports. "Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday revealed that Biden, the Democratic National Committee and two affiliated committees had $331.2 million in the bank as of Oct. 14, while Trump, the Republican National Committee and two of their fundraising affiliates had $223.6 million in reserve." TRUMP'S FRIDAY -- The president will leave the White House at 1:30 p.m. en route to Ocala, Fla. He will travel to The Villages, Fla., and speak at a campaign rally at 4:30 p.m. Trump will leave at 6:10 p.m. and travel to Pensacola, Fla. He will arrive at Pensacola International Airport at 6:50 p.m. CDT and speak at a campaign rally. Afterward, he will travel to West Palm Beach. He will arrive at Mar-a-Lago at 11:30 p.m. ON THE TRAIL … BIDEN will deliver remarks on Covid-19 and the economy in Wilmington, Del. SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-Calif.) will travel to Atlanta. She will participate in virtual fundraisers in the afternoon. She will also participate in an early vote mobilization launch in the evening. TV TONIGHT -- PBS' "Washington Week" with Bob Costa: Asma Khalid, Susan Page and Toluse Olorunnipa. SUNDAY SO FAR … | 
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