I’m not sure the repetition is a bad thing. While it’s a little tiresome to us political junkies, repetition is what makes people remember. It would be far easier to list a handful of clear policies Trump supports as opposed to Hillary, and that’s all because he repeats them often.
I cannot believe he missed that layup on her emails. No emails, no Benghazai, no Clinton Foundation, and no strong counterpunch when she attacked him on his past statements on women. On the plus side, no major gaffes by him which was my major worry
Crap, you and I could have prepped him better that that.
He needs to hit her hard. He did not want to come across as too aggressive but when he was it was the only time I felt moved.
He had her on the ropes with TPP and I swear she was just about to say “I was for it before I was against it”. He could have finished that sound bite for her and it would have been headlines tomorrow.
He let her drag him down into the muck and he spent too much time defending himself. Let’s face it. He’s like the kid who is trying to cover his ass for not finishing his Brussels sprouts while his sister cooked the family dog and put it in the chili every one is eating. There is no reason to say anything other than “where’s the dog”.
Philandering Willy.
Benghazi.
Classified email handling.
The foundation.
Democratic management of race relations.
Immigration.
Foreign and domestic Islamic terrorism.
Damn. There are so many targets.
And by the way. Lester Holt should be put on an ice floe and kicked out to sea.
I have not watched any of the debate yet, by design.
My question is did he come across as a bully? Even a little?
Because if he did not, even a little, then he won some new groups that have been conditioned into thinking he’s a bully.
Now, at the 2nd debate he can come out off the ropes a little and punch back. And at the 3rd debate, he can KO her.
But he must not appear as a bully at all tonight. That’s what her media was waiting for so that they could play his bully character 24/7 to the 2nd debate.
I agree. Was expecting more from Trump but he was outnumbered 2-1. Hillary might have won on style points but never really said anything of substance.
He was on point, he said what he had to, and he was prepared...
He isn't a ‘polished politician’ that has spent 40 years of his life lying...and there was a few things he could have done differently, but he stood up not only to ROTTEN but her puppet also...
TRUMP WON TONIGHT...AMERICA WON ANOTHER ROUND TONIGHT!!!
Trump spent too much time responding to petty attacks instead of using the time to attack Hillary Clinton on her serious crimes.
He defended himself against charges he called a woman a name instead of using that opportunity to bring up how Hillary’s husband raped women and Hillary attacked the rape victims. He defended himself against not disclosing a tax return instead of attacking Hillary on the Clinton Foundation. There were a bunch of these.
Trump could also spend more time describing the details of the crimes or incompetence. He did some of that tonight. But Trump is a bottom-line guy and often has a tendency to just characterize the outcome — worst deal ever, Iran was a disaster, etc. Don’t just label it - explain in more detail why it was a disaster and educate the masses.
Hillary should have been destroyed but she survived to fight another day.
Very good analysis, Laz.
He probably did the best he could under terrific duress—100 million people, an audience of tittering university children unchecked by the moderator(!) and an opponent who is the smarmiest schoolyard bully who ever lived!
But he will be calmer next time, for sure. I knew she’d be a pro...she had her friends in the audience, the moderator, the notes on her podium. Her one liners were delivered with practiced ease. Reminds me of being the only anti-socialist student in my ivy league college classes. Not fun. Hillary is that girl who’d turn around and snarl, “How can you say that? No one believes that anymore!”
They installed a new deep cycle battery in the Hillarybot for tonights’ debate.
Its like this, if you want a lying career politician who goes around talking about how they know EVERYTHING but they leave bodies behind everywhere they go, then yeah go for Hillary Clinton..but if you want someone who CARES about PEOPLE and wants to make AMERICA better for EVERYONE go with Trump..I think he did fine, he could have done better, gone for the jugular, mentioned the Clinton Foundation, Haiti(They are STILL waiting for their money), Benghazi, that would have been PERFECT but for whatever reason he decided not to bring it up
Trump connects with people, Hillary doesn’t.
In the weeks leading up to Reagan’s first debate the MSM had painted the retired Hollywood actor as an ignorant bumpkin who had no business being in the White House. The undecideds wanted to know who this ‘scary’ conservative really was, and whether he had what it took to become President of the United States.
In the first debate he didn’t do all that well. Carter caught him flat footed a few times and laid in some well-rehearsed attack lines. The media then promptly declared Carter the winner.
A week later the media couldn’t believe that Reagan’s polls went *up* afterwards. They were absolutely flabbergasted.
Why did it happen? It was because Reagan knew that America was going in the wrong direction, and he spoke about it with conviction and with heart. Meanwhile Carter was stiff and rattled off his well-rehearsed talking points.
Hillary in comparison is a robot. The empathy just isn’t there, and that is a big factor for the LIVs and undecideds.
Not in boxing. "You have to beat the champ to be the champ" is an old boxing rule. Not sure if POTUS is like boxing, but I think Hillary maintained, which is probably enough to hold the belt.
Trump did fine for his first-ever Presidential debate. Corrupt-o-crat lifelong politician Hillary has participated in 34 primary debates.
Trump needs to do better next time.
On to Debate #2!
I didn’t like DJT committing to support her if she wins.
For the most part he held his own, but he is capable of doing so much better. He needs to provide the knockout punch, and unfortunately it wasn't delivered tonight. However, the same it true for Clinton too. She delivered no knockout punch.
I think he did better than draw, it will work to his advantage. He made himself quite acceptable to those who don’t know or pay attention to politics. He didn’t have to knock her out, that doesn’t really happen in these things...but he will keep his momentum.
Idiot!