The greatest nation on earth has become the greatest show on earth, as the first of a series of high-level government debates look more like a sideshow than our national discourse.

The nation’s political ringmaster against the Democratic lion, Donald Trump versus Joe Biden, went verbally mano a mano in Cleveland near the shores of Lake Erie.

It wasn’t, I think we can agree, pretty.

Optics still matter, and Biden offered up a smile as fake as the white enamel on his teeth. Trump scowled and wore a bronzer that looked like a bruise I had once.

As the time slips away, Trump needs to pick up support fast, not simply get over on the libs by frustrating Biden. His majority might be silent, but Trump certainly wasn’t.

“Mr. President, I’m the moderator of this debate; I’d like for you to let me ask my questions,” Chris Wallace admonished at one point.

When offered the chance to denounce white supremacists, an alliance that’s dogged him, he equivocated, lending the Proud Boys a “stand back and stand by” catchphrase.

The former vice president gave it back more surgically. He turned to the audience, “Folks, do you know what this clown is doing?” At another juncture, Biden said, “Will you shut up, man?” He also called the sitting president a racist and a clown.

On NBC, Lester Holt called the confusing mess “a low point in American political history,” a “food fight” and a “brawl.”

His co-host Savannah Guthrie said, “I think we need to pause for a moment and say, ‘That was crazy.’ ” 

A CBS poll Wednesday found 83% of viewers had a negative view of the debate. What debate did the other 17% watch?

I asked two of my smartest friends, one on each side of the partisan divide, to lend me some Colorado clarity.

“Frustrating. Fiery. Chaotic. Uncomfortable. Disappointing,” Sandra Hagen Solin, who leads the A-list of lobbyists and strategists at the Capitol, told me. Sandra typically works on the right of most arguments and gets more women involved in conservative politics. “With the largest TV audience for a debate in history, both candidates resorted to the lowest of the lows in politics resorting to rhetoric, falsehoods, distortions and disrespect to prove not why they should be president but why not.

“Trump failed to effectively speak to his record, while Biden’s insults overshadowed any semblance of vision. I’m hoping both men show up for round two with a different debate strategy in mind.”

Jenny Davies helps causes on the left, from national organizations to neighborhood groups, to get their message out through the firm she operates, Progressive Promotions. She’s astute in hearts and minds.

“This was most undignified debate I’ve ever seen and it’s all due to Donald’s Trump’s abusive demeanor,” Jenny said right after. “Trump — as always — was an angry, master deflector and an artful practitioner of the Gish gallop, a debate strategy to bury the opposition in a million points, most of which aren’t valid but result in a sense of confusion and weakness in the target. His comments degrading Beau Biden demonstrated his complete amorality and depravity. My gut reaction to Trump the person was ‘ewww’ and it’s not even about his politics.”

She added, “Of course, Trump’s supporters love the pugnacious persona while Biden’s folks are yearning to restore political norms of the past, so they were playing to their respective bases. And honestly, if the polls are right, are there any undecided voters and does it even matter? If there are, I have to believe that Coloradans are looking for a leader who is thoughtful, measured and respectful, so Biden took the night.”

Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, go at it next Wednesday night in Utah.

The partisan mud pit comes to Pueblo on Friday night, however, when former Gov. John Hickenlooper takes on incumbent U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner.

Gardner surprised Democrats six years ago when he took the seat, and he will be a surprise to them again if he keeps it. If Coloradans don’t like Trump, then it’s hard to like Gardner. 

Impeachment, the Supreme Court, health care, environmental deregulation, the border wall — Gardner has provided more of a limousine lane than a speed bump for Trump.

Yet, if moderates can’t pull the lever for Trump, and they’re leery of Hick, then Gardner is an appealing choice, especially to keep the Senate in the hands of a GOP majority as a firebreak against Biden’s agenda.

Hickenlooper dropped an ad Tuesday starring alongside two “Cardboard Cory” cutouts, a shameless throwback to a shameless gag pulled by liberal activists last year, alleging Gardner wouldn’t show up with enough advance notice to give them time to organize a protest to hijack the media attention. Politics is a dirty business, folks.

That’s shameless, because since then Hickenlooper has made quite a reputation for not showing up, beginning in the primary, long before the pandemic.

“I’m looking forward to the debates,” the formerly no-negative-campaigning Hickenlooper says in the ad, with his ironic two Corys at his side. “But which Cory Gardner is going to show up?”

Gardner, like Trump, needs to change the trajectory of this race, or he’s headed to defeat.