I thought Trump did fine and I expect him to keep rising in the polls.<\/p>\n
All the Republicans the Post quotes have been strongly against Trump from the beginning of his presidential run, but the newspaper does not note this. They are hardly disinterested observers. They are invested in Trump losing. <\/p>\n
Frank Luntz tweeted that Trump was winning the first half of the debate. Trump had a strong first 25 minutes. I thought Hillary tired about an hour in and became less articulate, though she finished strong. I thought Trump lost his discipline about 25 minutes in and missed many opportunities to score. <\/p>\n
The experts have been wrong about Trump since last summer. I think they are wrong about him again today with their opinions on the debate. Average Americans will keep responding positively to Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
WP: “Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton lacked stamina. But guess who wilted in the debate?”<\/p>\n
I thought Trump was high energy the whole debate even though much of it was two against one (with the moderator, Lester Holt, challenging Trump much more aggressively than Clinton and delivering commentaries such as “the records shows otherwise”, etc,). Clinton wilted in the middle and then came back strong.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post thinks otherwise<\/a>:<\/p>\n THE BIG IDEA: The consensus that Donald Trump badly lost the first debate gelled overnight. <\/strong>Liberals predictably panned the GOP nominee\u2019s performance on Long Island, but some of the harshest reviews are coming from conservative thought leaders who had been starting to come around.<\/p>\n — Instant reaction:<\/strong><\/p>\n Republican pollster Frank Luntz conducted a focus group of undecided voters in Pennsylvania. Sixteen said Hillary Clinton won. Five picked Trump, per CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a Florida focus group organized by CNN<\/a>, 18 of 20 undecided voters picked Clinton as the winner.<\/p>\n Not one of 29 undecided voters in an Ohio focus group organized by Park Street Strategies thought Trump prevailed, while 11 picked Clinton and the rest said neither. By a two-to-one margin, the group thought Clinton had the better tone and, by a three-to-one margin, they thought she came across as more knowledgeable candidate on the issues.<\/p>\n A CNN\/ORC flash poll found that 62 percent said the Democrat won, compared to 27 percent who picked Trump. That\u2019s on par with 2012, when Mitt Romney was seen as the winner of the first debate.<\/p>\n In a separate instant-poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling<\/a>, 51 percent said Clinton won and 40 percent picked Trump.<\/p>\n Eight in 10 insiders in the key battleground states thought Clinton performed better, including 57 percent of Republicans, according to the Politico Caucus survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n reporters during a gaggle. \u201cDid you notice that? My mic was defective within the room. I wonder, was that on purpose?\u201d There was no clear problem with his microphone during the debate, Jose DelReal notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump was supposed to stop by the Nassau County Republican Committee\u2019s watch party on his way home. He skipped it.<\/strong> Clinton, meanwhile, celebrated with hundreds of supporters in Westbury.<\/p>\n And Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump surrogate, even suggested that Trump should skip the next two debates unless he gets concessions.<\/strong> \u201cIf I were Donald Trump I wouldn\u2019t participate in another debate unless I was promised that the journalist would act like a journalist and not an incorrect, ignorant fact checker,\u201d he said<\/a>. — But Trump\u2019s lack of preparation showed. <\/strong>There were too many missed opportunities to count.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m not positive Hillary actually won the debate. But I’m sure Trump lost it. He choked,\u201d writes Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you are a Trump supporter, you have to think that he left a lot on the table,\u201d writes GOP supper lobbyist Ed Rogers<\/a>, a veteran of the Reagan and Bush 41 White Houses. \u201cHe didn\u2019t see the openings and he didn\u2019t swing at the softballs that came his way.<\/strong> He never used the word \u2018change,\u2019 he didn\u2019t bore in on Hillary\u2019s email scandal and he never got around to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary\u2019s suspect integrity. Trump was inarticulate and rarely hit the bull\u2019s eye.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was exciting but embarrassingly undisciplined<\/strong>,\u201d writes New York Post conservative columnist John Podhoretz<\/a>. \u201cHe began with his strongest argument \u2014 that the political class represented by her has failed us and it\u2019s time to look to a successful dealmaker for leadership \u2014 and kept to it pretty well for the first 20 minutes. Then due to the vanity and laziness that led him to think he could wing the most important 95 minutes of his life, he lost the thread of his argument, he lost control of his temper and he lost the perspective necessary to correct these mistakes as he went. By the end \u2026 Trump was reduced to a sputtering mess blathering about Rosie O\u2019Donnell and about how he hasn\u2019t yet said the mean things about Hillary that he is thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the first 20 minutes, it may have been the most lopsided debate I\u2019ve ever seen \u2014 and not because Clinton was particularly effective. But you don\u2019t need to be good when your opponent is bad<\/strong>,\u201d writes National Review\u2019s David French<\/a>, who considered running for president as an independent. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t he have a better answer ready for the birther nonsense? Has he still not done any homework on foreign policy? I felt like I was watching the political Titanic hit the iceberg, back up, and hit it again. Just for fun<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n The Fix\u2019s Chris Cillizza<\/a> notes in his piece on the night\u2019s winners and losers that Trump never even mentioned the phrase basket of deplorables. \u201cTrump was simply not prepared well enough for this debate,\u201d says Cillizza. \u201cHis [birther answer] was like watching a car accident in slow motion.\u201d<\/p>\n As Dana Milbank<\/a> writes, \u201cTrump ostentatiously avoided preparation \u2014 playing the proverbial high school slacker drinking beer behind the bleachers while the teacher\u2019s pet was in the library. But Monday night was<\/strong> the revenge of the nerd<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n From the chief strategist of Mitt Romney\u2019s 2012 campaign:<\/p>\n Trump brought 20 minutes of material to a 90 minute show.<\/p>\n \u2014 stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) September 27, 2016<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n— It was a debate about Trump. Like the whole 2016 cycle, the GOP nominee sucked up all the oxygen. <\/strong>Facebook says eight in 10 posts about the debate focused on him. Twitter said 62 percent of debate-related tweets were about him.<\/p>\n\n