Last night my wife and I waited up to watch the debate with great interest as both of us missed the first one as we were in Liverpool at the Labour Party Conference.
Donald Trump was on the back foot going into this debate with his lwed comments about women which he justified by calling it locker room banter. I was looking for a good performance and detail on Trumps policies on the burning questions on health care, education, energy, foreign policy and jobs et cetra. The republicans needed this performance to stop his campaign going into free fall after the recent polling results showing a downturn. In my opinion, it was not a complete disaster, but I did feel a lot of what he said was reactionary to Mrs Clinton rather than his own original policy. Mrs Clinton was able to talk from experience and spoke first on answering most of the questions.
It was evidence, that Mr Trump’s answers on policy were weak, and sometimes rambling. I was surprised that he broke ranks with his running mate, Mike Pence and said he had not spoken to him. His biggest flaw however was in body language. Whilst Mrs Clinton thought through every expression and move, he looked lost and spent a lot of time lurking and at times looking over her shoulder.
Mrs Clinton’s response – “that’s a lie; check my website” – was a good way of avoiding the facts debate and talking more about policy.
I could not work out if either Clinton or Trump connected well with the town hall audience. Due to the lack of time, the audience were discouraged to applaud and make comments, It seemed they were more on lookers than participants.
Mr Trump, stalking around the stage like a grouchy bear, picking fights with the moderators and hurling abuse at the Clintons did him no favours. As for Mrs Clinton, she was calm to the point of being smug – a trait she showed in some of the primary debates. Smiling beatifically at the camera can eventually grate.
The biggest threat to her winning the election is her own complacency, she went to the debate to not lose rather than win convincingly. Many republicans were asking themselves, can they take a risk with Trump or let the Democratic win a third term.
You can probably work out who’s side I am on, I hope the American people can take the higher ground and elect Mrs Hilary Clinton into office a more suitable candidate. it is a difficult and stressful for both families of Clinton and Trump, as it is a personal drama that is unfolding around the world.
There two clear choices for the American people, not just two human beings, but between two futures that will make America great both home and abroad.
CNN/ORC POLL: 57% SAY CLINTON WON
YOUGOV POLL: 42% SAY TRUMP WON