The second presidential debate is over and the reviews are in. They are all pretty universally proclaiming Kamala Harris the clear winner and Donald Trump the loser. Pundits are using words like "eviscerated" and "humiliated" to describe how impressive Harris's takedown of Trump truly was last night. For the first time in his political career, Donald Trump was absolutely dominated -- live, on screen, for all of America to see.

It wasn't even close. Even Fox News had to admit Harris won. The only one insisting that Trump won was Donald Trump, who unexpectedly showed up in the post-debate "spin room" to make this rather laughable boast.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris addressed her supporters with Taylor Swift playing in the background (more on this in a moment).

Harris did exactly what she needed to do. She drew a contrast between herself (forward-thinking, positive, optimistic, focused on the future) and her opponent (backward-thinking, angry, petulant, doom-and-gloom, focused on himself above all else, all the time). Here is how one debate review column started out:

Donald J. Trump's America is a grim place, a nation awash in marauding immigrants stealing American jobs and eating American cats and dogs, a country devastated economically, humiliated internationally and perched on the cliff's edge of an apocalyptic World War III.

Kamala Harris's America is a weary but hopeful place, a nation fed up with the chaos of the Trump years and sick of all the drama and divisiveness, a country embarrassed by a crooked stuck-in-the-past former president facing prison time and eager for a new generation of leadership.

Sums it up pretty nicely. This is the contrast Harris wanted to project, and Trump played right into her hands, over and over again. Every piece of bait she dangled, he snapped at. In response to her prosecutorial takedown of his history, his presidency, and his character, Trump ranted and raved and just plain lost it. Over and over again. He couldn't help himself, because this is truly who he is. Harris just showcased it for America, in case anyone had forgotten.

For me, there was one absolutely priceless moment. In case anyone's forgotten, while Trump was president he did everything he could to "repeal and replace" the hated Obamacare. But the problem was that he never could come up with any "repeal" plan at all -- Trump just kept promising that he'd put out a plan "soon"... maybe in the next couple of weeks. But as Little Orphan Annie sang, tomorrow's always a day away -- so no plan ever emerged. Which, of course, didn't stop Trump from eternally promising that he'd have one real soon now, and it'd be big and beautiful and cheaper than Obamacare and everyone would love it.

Last night, he was again asked about it. First Trump answered from an alternate reality, where he told the story of how he had actually saved Obamacare. No, really! He actually said that....

Trump then moved on to say what he has always said (from the official ABC transcript of the debate):

And what we will do is we're looking at different plans. If we can come up with a plan that's going to cost our people, our population less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it. But until then I'd run it as good as it can be run.

He was interrupted by one of the moderators, who bluntly asked: "So just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan?" This is where it got absolutely priceless (for me at least). Trump's response:

I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now. But if we come up with something I would only change it if we come up with something better and less expensive. And there are concepts and options we have to do that. And you'll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.

In other words: "Tomorrow, tomorrow... I love ya, tomorrow... you're always a day away!"

Donald Trump entered politics nine years ago. One of his big issues from the start was repealing Obamacare, mostly because he hated Barack Obama so much that he wanted to destroy Obama's signature achievement as president. But in all that time -- nine years -- he and the Republicans have never even come close to coming up with a plan for how to replace it. Not even close. Trump's answer reminded America of his own glaring failure to make good on one of his signature campaign issues. And all he had to say about it was exactly the same lie he's been using all along. He has "concepts of a plan." Great. And we'll "be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future." Uh-huh. Sure. Where have I heard that before?

Mind you, this won't be the most-quoted debate clip -- it's just the one that made me roll my eyes the most. There are plenty of other "Did he really just say that?" clips of Trump getting apoplectic and saying all sorts of truly bizarre things. The weirdest of these, easily, came after Harris expertly baited him on the subject he deeply cares about -- the crowd size of his political rallies. Here's the exchange, starting with Harris offering up the bait:

I'm going to actually do something really unusual and I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies because it's a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about [how] windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

After Harris waved this red cape in his face, Trump lunged:

First let me respond as to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies. There's no reason to go. And the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there. And then showing them in a different light. So, she can't talk about that. People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. That's because people want to take their country back. Our country is being lost. We're a failing nation. And it happened three and a half years ago. And what, what's going on here, you're going to end up in World War III, just to go into another subject. What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country. And look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don't want to talk -- not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, as far -- the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. It's a very simple phrase. Make America great again. She's destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn't have a chance of success. Not only success. We'll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

Hoo boy. That one answer provided multiple soundbites that may have to duke it out for the most memorable clip from last night. And it doesn't even qualify as the most unhinged moment for Trump. There are actually a lot of candidates for that dubious distinction, since Harris so successfully got under Trump's skin, over and over again. She did something that no man or woman has yet managed, and that was to absolutely dominate Trump. It truly was a beautiful thing to behold, from beginning to end.

After it was all said and done, Kamala Harris got the "icing on the cake" moment her team has been hoping for all along: Taylor Swift endorsed Harris on Instagram. Within 30 minutes, the post had racked up over two million "likes." As of this writing, it is nearing 10 million likes. Swift wrote a detailed note, explaining that she wanted to counter Trump's A.I.-generated fake endorsement from her with the truth: "I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election." Just to rub it in (to JD Vance's face, that is), she posted it with a photo of her and one of her cats and signed the note: "Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady."

The army of Swifties has now been activated. And a whole lot of them are indeed old enough to vote. Team Harris was quick to respond:

The endorsement was a surprise to the vice president, her advisers and officials who manage celebrity relationships outside the campaign, according to an official who was not authorized to speak about the plans. But within 20 minutes of the endorsement post, the Harris campaign was nodding to Ms. Swift's fans by selling "Harris-Walz friendship bracelets" on its website for $20 -- a campaign aide came up with the idea and officials drew up plans within minutes. By midday Wednesday, the bracelets were sold out.

Harris walked on stage at her post-debate party to Swift's song The Man which bemoans the double-standard women have to constantly face:

I'm so sick of running as fast as I can
Wondering if I'd get there quicker
If I was a man
And I'm so sick of them coming at me again
'Cause if I was a man
Then I'd be the man
I'd be the man
I'd be the man

(The song also has an amazing video, if anyone's interested.)

Although the subject hasn't been as prominent as it was during Hillary Clinton's campaign, Harris does indeed still face a huge double standard. Women politicians have to clear hurdles that simply don't exist for men. Last night, Kamala Harris easily cleared all these hurdles. She looked presidential. She is looking to the future, not the past. She dominated Trump in a way no politician, man or woman, has ever managed to do before. It was truly a virtuoso performance all around.

She even taunted Trump immediately afterwards, calling for a second debate between them. It's a clear measure of who won last night, since Trump is now running scared from the idea of facing her again on a debate stage.

It is rare, during any presidential campaign, that any one debate is all that significant. This year, we got two. The first caused President Joe Biden to exit the race. The second proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vice President Kamala Harris is not only ready for a promotion but also that Donald Trump can indeed be humiliated on a debate stage. The whole night was not just memorable, but downright historic.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant