1st Presidential Debate Open Thread

Open thread for live commenting on the 1st Trump vs Clinton presidential debate.

UPDATE:

The first 20 to 30 minutes were quite even, and I’d even say advantage to Trump. He connected better on the economy and has specifics compared to Clinton. And he killed Clinton on TPP. It was depressing however to see him advocate a tariff on basically every import into the United States – a protectionist agenda to the left of most Democrats and also in breach of WTO rules.

But the last hour was not even, and not even close to even. I may be wrong, but thought Clinton overwhelmed him (unlike the first half hour which I thought favoured him). A few stand outs:

• Clinton was expert at baiting Trump and getting him to bite. She’d bring up his business dealings and he’d then talk in detail about them, rather than about his policies or plans for the US. Who cares about what he did in the 70s.
• He was tone deaf often. When she said many years he paid no income tax at all, and he responded along the lines that is because he was smart is one example.
• On the birtherism issue, he was awful
• Clinton dominated at NATO and foreign policy generally.

Unsure whether undecided voters will shift by this, but my expectation is a lift for Clinton in the polls. We’ll see.