First Debate, Immediate Reaction

The first presidential debate ended one hour ago.  The consensus on cable news is that Hillary Clinton won big.  I agree.

Donald Trump got off to a reasonably strong start.  The first question was about jobs, and Donald Trump has a pretty good rap about trade deals that he can spit out on demand.  The substance of this argument is pretty weak but there are definitely a lot of voters out there who think that NAFTA and other free trade deals are the reaons that manufacturing jobs have left the rust belt.  So 15 minutes in, it was more or less a drawer.

But slowly, Trump rode into a ditch.  He was sniffling constantly and interrupting Hillary with great frequency  Hillary for her part was very sure of the facts and very well-rehearsed in her delivery. Tonight at least, Hillary's dilligence paid off.

I think the most important reprecussion of tonight will be that Trump cam across as so damn rude to his opponent. I think women in particular recognized him as the loud mouthed jerk who dominates a conversation even when he no facts on his side.

But Trump was bad in a lot of small ways too.  He completely lied his way through the birther question and he somehow managed to brag about having been mean to Rosie O'Donnell.  For me the worst momen was when he cited imaginary phone conversations with Sean Hannity as proof that he opposed the Iraq war in 2002.  Hannity's show is a nightly hour of Sean performing fellatio on Donald Trump.  But Donald can not understand why no one takes Sean at his word about the contenst of these secret conversation that were unspoken about for 14 years.

Hillary won on style and on substance. She won on temperment and on veracity.  The prediction markets tilted her way by about 5 points over the course of 2 hours.  She should get a bounce out of this. But it's still six weeks from the election and Donald will adjust before the other debates.

Report Cards:

Hillary Clinton:  A.  You can always find flaws in 90 minutes of live speaking, but I don't think Hillary missed any of the points she wanted to make and I don't think she gave Trump any terrible sound bites to use in commercials.

Donald Trump:  C-.  This is the gentleman's C-. He didn't call Hillary any misogynist slurs, so that's something.  The most damning criticism of his perofrmance may be that right now all his spinners are on the airwaves complaining that Hillary prepared too mcuh for the debate.

Lest Holt:  A-.   I read a lot of criticism of Holt for not interfering more, especially when Donald Trump kept interrupting Hillary.  It's a reasonable point but I don't think that's the role of a presidential debate moderator.  The debates should be about the candidates and if one candidate is being a jerk, the jerk candidate is the only one who suffers for that.

I was worried about Holt when the topic were announced.  These topics, remember were: "Achieving Prosperity", "Securing America" and "America's Direction."  This sounds like the parameters for an award four outstanding achievement in the field of excellence. But Lester Holt asked good questions tonight and raised all the subjects that have dominated the conversation so far, including Donald Trump's horrific record on birtherism.  I think he did well.