SUMMARY: A tie - no winner !
Trump held his own, with no major gaffes = I suppose his fans think that is a "win", since expectations were so low.
Clinton was long-winded, and boring -- I'm sure she bored more people than just me.
Both lacked supporting data to back up almost all of their claims.
And Lester Holt was a biased horse's ass.
DETAILS:
Donald Trump stood on a stage with policy wonk Hillary Clinton for 90 minutes and did not embarrass himself, or insult Hillary in a way that would cause leftists to bellow "sexism"
Some will say that means he "won" the debate -- I know they were not difficult goals for most people ... but I think they were a challenge for Trump.
Fans will be scratching their heads for weeks wondering how Trump allowed Hillary to pontificate on cyber security without making a wisecrack (her speaking about that subject makes as much sense as her lecturing us on honesty and integrity).
Hillary Clinton babbled on with one liberal platitude after another -- many time I expected her to start clapping her hands and urging the audience to sing Kumbaya.
She talked way too much, to the point that I "zoned out" many times watching her mouth moving ... but no longer listening.
I suppose Hillary's main goal was to come across as likable -- she failed -- she came across as a boring policy wonk, with only one personal anecdote that was interesting (about her Dad's business.)
Hillary kept Trump on the defensive most of the time, and that prevented Trump from scoring a "win".
Lester Holt deserves no respect for his obvious bias.
He did a lot to attack Trump, and leave Clinton alone.
Holt asked no questions about:
- Hillary’s emails
- Benghazi
- Clinton Foundation / slush fund
- Health (Hillary did collapse on September 11)
Holt grilled Trump on:
- stop-and-frisk
(where Holt was wrong -- NYC homicides were down an amazing 75% in the stop and frisk era),
- the birther story
(a rumor Hillary's campaign started in 2008, and it took three years for Obama to release a birth certificate, which was strange ... and of course it never mattered, because Obama's mother was a US citizen, so he was too, eligible to run for president no matter where he was born),
- comments about women,
- bankruptcies,
- why he hasn’t released tax returns,
- and other issues.
Lester "I want Hillary" Holt repeatedly attempted to “fact check” Trump’s claim to have opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, but did not refute it.
Holt also interrupted Trump several times to interject, but Trump would not let him.
