I don’t have a clear “who won” reaction.
Trump was more subdued than usual for the first part of the debate, and he seemed to do well. He missed a huge point on the Heller decision — which Hillary absolutely falsely described as an issue of protecting toddlers. As things heated up, Trump again scored points, particularly on the Clinton foundation and Hillary making a mess of the world. He also did well on immigration.
BUT, as usual, Trump gave the media something to talk about that likely hurts him — declining to say whether or not he would accept the outcome of the election. In a prior debate he said he would, but now no? It’s all the media is going to want to talk about.
Hillary stuck to her script, and scored points on the allegations against Trump by various women who came forward. Hillary had her zingers ready, and the ones on Trump using Chinese steel and Trump having a personality disorder (not the phrase she used, but that’s what she was getting at) in which he claims everything is rigged against him, were used to great effect.
Will it change the polls at all? As mentioned after the last debate, I’m out of that business.
Here’s my Quick Hit for tomorrow’s Morning Insurrection (if you don’t subscribe yet, you are missing content not on the website. You can sign up here):
“SAD! That’s how I felt watching last night’s presidential debate. In a country of over 300 million people, how did we end up with these two? They are each deplorable in their own special ways. I’ll take one deplorable from column A, and a second deplorable from column B.”
Here’s some of what I was tweeting as the night went on.
Some highlight clips:
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