Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

[Mav]

To an extent, that's true.  But she's about as wonkish as any candidate in history and took days off to prepare.  I'm sure she has internalised a flow chart of what she will do depending on which Trump shows up.  And that chart will deal with many variations.  It's like she's Deep Blue and Trump, being far from a chess Grand Master, will find it hard to come up with something unanticipated.  The flipside is that she may lock in to the chess game too much and fail to warm up her image with the public.

[Mav]

Interesting pre-game question: will the audience obey the direction to keep quiet?  Pundits think a quiet audience will rob Trump of energy.  He loves playing off cheers, laughter and even boos.  But given Trump has shown scant regard for other political conventions, it wouldn't be a shock if his campaign organises a noisy audience.  Will the debate organisers be able to eject noisy audience members? Will such a spectacle derail the solemnity of the debate and work to Trump's advantage?

[Mav]

I'm not going to do a running commentary but most US News sites will, for example http://m.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/pre...aad9b63241.

[madbluboy]

Trump straight on the attack lol. Hillary trying to remain calm.

[Mav]

He seems to be a sniffing a fair bit and drinking lots of water.  Is he coming down with something?  That would be ironic.

Agree he's on the attack and she's on the defensive, particularly over NAFTA.  Disappointing.

[madbluboy]

Trump destroying her. Lester doing a better job grilling Trump than Hillary.

[Mav]

She landed a few blows over his business dealings and tax while nipping in the bud his attempt to switch the debate to her emails.  Good to see her stick to an apology over emails without blameshifting.

[DJC]

I heard one Republican say something along the lines of Trump only having to come up with one grammatically correct sentence to be considered a winner.  Clinton, on the other hand, has to articulate and defend policies.

I'm more than happy to not watch/listen to either of them.

[Mav]

Surely, Trump's incoherent waffling over his birther campaign and whether he was for or against the Iraq war has been bad for him.  Clinton's laugh and Oh Boy! response got a good laugh.  Trump's early energy has ebbed.  The question will be whether the public made up its mind in the first half hour or whether Trump's lack of stamina will be the issue.

[LP]

The general consensus is Clinton won, primarily because all Trump could do was attack her and not answer questions. He kept cutting off Clinton and the moderator in a bullying manner but wouldn't answer questions.