This is my quick reaction to tonight’s debate.
I think it went as well as could have been expected by Trump. He dealt with the 2005 tape by apologizing, and it came across well.
And he didn’t immediately counterattack on Bill Clinton’s sexual abuse and harassment and Hillary’s complicity. He waited, whether deliberately or not, until Hillary repeatedly attacked him on the tape and the moderators seemed to have to pull it out of him.
But when he did attack, because he didn’t do it immediately, laid out the case against Bill and Hillary quite well.
Trump also did serious damage on the email issue, mocking Hillary very effectively. The crowd laughed.
When he said Hillary should be in jail and he would appoint a special prosecutor, the crowd cheered.
On the issue of the transcript in which Hillary spoke of having private and public positions, Hillary incredibly blamed Abe Lincoln somehow — it was so convoluted I can’t even type it from memory. Trump pounced in a mocking manner, comparing Honest Abe to Lying Hillary.
Trump didn’t bring up the “open borders” statement in one of the speech transcripts. That was a lost opportunity.
Overall, Trump had command of the stage and was in control.
As I’m typing this I turned to MSNBC. They are apoplectic. ’nuff said.
The moderators were horrible, particularly Martha Raddatz. She repeatedly argued with Trump, to a point that even Republican #nevertrump-ers on Twitter were complaining.
Will this help reverse Trump’s poll slide and the damage from the tape? (I think I’ll get out of the polling prediction business, at least for tonight.)
Here are some of the tweets I sent out.
Some other reactions:
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