ELECTION 2016DONALD TRUMPHILLARY CLINTON At the First Debate, Clinton Faced Asymmetric Warfare—and Won “Donald, I know you live in your own reality,” she said calmly. And it gradually became clear she was right.

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Peter Burgess

The Nation ELECTION 2016DONALD TRUMPHILLARY CLINTON At the First Debate, Clinton Faced Asymmetric Warfare—and Won “Donald, I know you live in your own reality,” she said calmly. And it gradually became clear she was right. By Joan WalshTwitterTODAY 12:44 AM FacebookTwitterEmailPrint Hillary_Clinton_Hofstra_Debate_rtr_img Hillary Clinton at the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. (Reuters / Brian Snyder) So it happened: Donald Trump faced Hillary Clinton onstage in the first presidential debate, and the earth didn’t swallow us up and end civilization as we knew it. The earth did not stand still. What had seemed like a bad dream wasn’t a dream: Trump is the GOP nominee for president of the United States, and only Clinton stands between him and the nuclear codes. There must be a German word for the feeling you get when something so terrible happens, you think you’re imagining it, but I haven’t found it yet. There they were, together, in the flesh, on the debate stage, with polls showing the race tightening. This match meant something serious. Clinton faced asymmetric warfare at Hofstra: She is knowledgeable, wonky, experienced, conscientious; Trump is the opposite of all of that. His folks had been telling the media she had more to lose, as the great debater; he just had to fail to swear, spew misogyny, and tell obvious lies in order to exceed expectations. The Democrat went in as “the AP high-school history teacher,” conservative Hugh Hewitt observed on MSNBC Sunday, avoiding overt sexism but tooting a misogynist dog whistle, while “Trump is the football coach.” Well, the football coach flopped, badly. Trump came in unprepared and winging it, and he never got more serious or grounded in policy or detail as the night went on. Clinton found a way to sound competent without being overbearing or scolding. From early on Trump hectored her, interrupting and talking over her, and she handled it with aplomb. She regularly advised the audience to check her Web site, HillaryClinton.com, for real-time fact-checking. “Donald, I know you live in your own reality,” she said calmly. And it gradually became clear she was right. The pre-debate before the debate centered on whether Lester Holt would adequately fact-check Trump, and he did a decent job—as did Clinton herself. Holt or Clinton or Clinton’s campaign caught a lot of Trump’s lies—that he’d never said climate change was a Chinese plot, or that pregnancy was an inconvenience to employers. He continued to claim he’d opposed the Iraq war, though Holt challenged him. Clinton teased some remarkable admissions from Trump. When she mentioned the years he hasn’t paid federal or state taxes, and suggested that might be the reason he won’t release them now, he jumped in with, “That makes me smart.” When she harshly chided Trump for stiffing small business vendors—plumbers, architects, steam-fitters, and window installers—he likewise snapped, “That’s business.” When she reminded him that he rooted for the 2007 housing crash in 2006, he also said, “That’s just business.” Trump’s white working-class voters now know more about his approach to business; sadly, I can’t imagine that will drive them to Clinton. Maybe not surprisingly, Trump blew Holt’s questions about race in the worst way. Asked how he would heal racial division, Trump came back with a pledge to restore “law and order” and promised to bring back New York’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” law. That didn’t seem the right answer when Holt was asking about the racial divide, unless you think about the racial divide only from the white side. At least he didn’t wear a “white power tie,” as Zach Galafianakis suggested; his cravat was a calm blue. Just as important, Clinton did a better job articulating her vision for the country than she often does. She blasted her opponent’s economic policies as “Trumped-up trickle-down, which got us into the mess we were in in 2008, 2009.” She promised to make college debt free and to reduce existing student loans. “I don’t think top-down works in America,” she said, promising “not to deliver more advantages for people at the very top.” Unbelievably, Trump seemed to return to his birther roots, insisting that his crusade to humiliate the first black president by getting him to show his papers was worthwhile. He continued to falsely insist Clinton had started birtherism, which was another time Holt jumped in to correct the record. Even so, Trump claimed credit for proving something that needed no proof. “I was very proud that I got the birth certificate, and she failed to get the birth certificate,” he told Holt. Holt didn’t always succeed in keeping Trump from interrupting Clinton when it was her turn. I was of two minds about that. Mostly it showed her equanimity in the face of Trump’s attacks. At one point she remarked, “I have a feeling that by the end of this evening I’m going to be blamed for everything that’s ever happened.” Trump responded: “Why not?” The point went to Clinton. Trump claimed he won the night’s debate, which shouldn’t be surprising. But instant polls found that viewers disagreed. The CNN instant debate-watchers poll said Clinton beat Trump 62-27. It will take a week to see if this night made a lasting impression. But Trump likely surrendered the advantage that he’s accumulated in the last week or so. Debates don’t often make a real electoral difference, but given how odd this year has been, it’s possible Trump’s debut before a television audience that may just be starting to tune in will hurt him.

https://www.thenation.com/article/in-the-first-debate-trump-failed-to-achieve-the-reagan-effect/ In the First Debate, Trump Failed to Achieve the Reagan Effect He seemed to shrink throughout the evening, growing more defensive and ill-tempered, snorting and grimacing. By Robert L. BorosageTODAY 10:08 AM
Donald Trump Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the presidential debate, September 26, 2016. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)

Marketed for days like the Super Bowl, last night’s first presidential debate inevitably failed to live up to the hype. The favorite, Hillary Clinton, won as expected, coming off as prepared, experienced, and tough. The underdog, Donald Trump, jabbed and floundered as predicted. He probably benefited simply by being able to stay in the fray for 90 minutes.

The debate took place with Democrats reeling from polls showing the race in a dead heat. Unimaginably, momentum—“mighty mo”—was on Trump’s side. CNN’s post-debate snapshot poll suggested that Clinton succeeded in reassuring her own voters and gaining an edge with independents. Surely, African Americans, women, and young people will come away from the debate with further doubts about Trump’s retrograde views.

Conventional wisdom holds that debates are won or lost in the first 30 minutes, after which the audience declines and attention flags. And the best exchange of the night launched the debate, sparked by moderator Lester Holt good first question: How would you create good jobs that put more money in people’s pockets?

Clinton argued for a policy that would “invest in you.” She called for public investment in infrastructure, innovation, renewable energy, and education. She’d raise the minimum wage, enforce equal pay for women, and move to affordable childcare to help with “work family pressures.”

Trump began with a characteristic riff on how bad things are: Jobs are fleeing; China and Mexico are stealing our jobs. We must “stop jobs from being stolen from us,” stop US companies from leaving the country. He called for “reducing taxes tremendously” and renegotiating our trade agreements.

Clinton pivoted from trade to taxes, dismissing a return to a “trumped-up trickle-down” policy that had failed in the past. In the first personal attack of the night, she effectively linked Trump’s views to his personal history of benefiting from a multimillion-dollar loan from his father in contrast to her father’s hard work building a small business.

Trump fell for it, as he did throughout the night, taking up time to defend his business. He returned to trade, and what clearly was intended to be his theme of the night: “She’s been doing this for 30 years,” and has failed to get it done. When Clinton argued that her husband had a pretty good record, Trump pounced: “He passed NAFTA,” and assailed Clinton’s record on trade, putting her on the defensive.

She pivoted back to taxes and investment as opposed to trickle down. Trump argued:

You are going to approve one of the biggest tax increases in history. You are going to drive business out. Your regulations are a disaster, and you’re going to increase regulations all over the place. And by the way, my tax cut is the biggest since Ronald Reagan. I’m very proud of it.

Holt pressed the issue, asking each to defend their tax policies, giving the question a populist edge: Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy vs. Clinton’s tax hikes on the wealthy. Trump argued his tax cuts would generate jobs. Clinton invoked “independent” studies that showed his plans would be ruinous and hers would generate jobs:

I don’t think top-down works in America. I think building the middle class, investing in the middle class, making college debt-free so more young people can get their education, helping people refinance their—their debt from college at a lower rate. Those are the kinds of things that will really boost the economy. Broad-based, inclusive growth is what we need in America, not more advantages for people at the very top.

Trump didn’t answer this, instead dismissing it as political blather:

Typical politician. All talk, no action. Sounds good, doesn’t work. Never going to happen. Our country is suffering because people like Secretary Clinton have made such bad decisions in terms of our jobs and in terms of what’s going on. Now, look, we have the worst revival of an economy since the Great Depression.

This frames the substantive choice voters face on the fundamental issue of the economy: Trump offering a return to top-end tax cuts, deregulation with a populist trade posture; Clinton calling for public investment to rebuild the country, lifting the floor under workers and, without admitting it, presenting an establishment view on trade. Both indicted the failed policies of the past: Clinton, trickle-down; Trump, NAFTA and trade.

Most of the rest of the debate was a shambles for Trump, as Clinton—often aided by Holt’s questions—skewered him on hiding his taxes, his business practices, his racist birther smear of Obama, and his sexism. She was strong and clear on race, decrying the “systemic racism” of our criminal-justice system, and didn’t retreat from concerns of “implicit bias” in policing.

Trump brayed about her lack of “stamina,” but she grew stronger as the debate went on, while he seemed to shrink, growing more defensive and ill-tempered, snorting and grimacing. The discussion on national security was largely incoherent, with Holt doing a disservice by suggesting the United States was under threat of massive cyber-warfare, and following with the impossible challenge of how to prevent homegrown terror attacks. Clinton’s experience and knowledge were apparent, while Trump wallowed around defending the lie that he opposed the war in Iraq.

“I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And, yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And I think that’s a good thing.”

Clinton’s prepared line, inserted awkwardly in the debate, summarizes her case. She’s the most experienced and prepared candidate for president since Nixon. That was apparent last night, although surely a mixed blessing in a country desperately seeking change. Trump hoped to achieve the Reagan effect: to show by standing up to her on the stage that he was plausible as a potential president. Undecided voters were surely left unconvinced about that basic question.

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