Washington University POTUS debate at 9pm ET **live commentary thread**

[Arbitrage1980]

How can a man win without being able to stitch together a single coherent thought in an answer.

Those of us who post here are relatively intelligent, knowledgeable, and well-educated. The VAST majority of the American voters are not. They are swayed by emotion, nonverbal gestures, one-liners, and overall tone. In those areas, Trump did well tonight. Undecided voters don't care whether Trump's tax policy did not add up.

If policy knowledge was what moved the election, Al Gore would have been President.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Taegan Goddard as always has the best analysis.

https://politicalwire.com/2016/10/09/reaction-second-presidential-debate/

Sometime over the last week — probably after the release of the video showing him bragging about sexual assault — Donald Trump realized he wasn’t going to win this election.

He’s now moved on to Plan B.

Trump’s pivot — starting with his “apology” video late Friday night — was to go full Breitbart. He’s now speaking only to the audience for a speculated media venture. Its not a mistake that his top advisers are former Fox News chief Roger Ailes and Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon.

From the pre-debate spectacle with women who accused Bill Clinton of various sex crimes to saying he would put Hillary Clinton in jail after he wins, it’s obvious that Trump no longer cares to be a mainstream Republican. He treated this like a debate at the Conservative Political Action Conference, not a general election campaign for president of the United States.

This debate should be seen as Trump’s official divorce from the Republican party.

Trump has put every Republican in a downballot race in a really tough position. They can un-endorse their party’s nominee and incur the wrath of his supporters or they can back him and lose swing voters. Trump even dismissed his own running mate’s comments on Russia. At this point, it’s hard to see the Republican party offer any help to his campaign.

As for the debate, Trump was completely unprepared. His body language was terrible. He showed he doesn’t even know how a bill becomes a law. He admitted he hasn’t paid federal income taxes for years — and that won’t the headline from tonight.

Considering that backdrop, Clinton did a decent job. She was very smart to stick to audience questions and try to understand their concerns. Rather than needle Trump as she did in the first debate, she mostly tried to ignore him.

Clinton wasn’t perfect. Her answer on her emails was extremely weak. She left many of Trump’s attacks unanswered. But there’s only one candidate seriously running for president at this point. She won the debate hands down. It’s hard to imagine Trump won over even a single voter tonight.

Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper were also excellent moderators. If you ever need a moderator for a dumpster fire, they’re the ones to choose.

[Mr. Smith]

How can a man win without being able to stitch together a single coherent thought in an answer.

Those of us who post here are relatively intelligent, knowledgeable, and well-educated. The VAST majority of the American voters are not. They are swayed by emotion, nonverbal gestures, one-liners, and overall tone. In those areas, Trump did well tonight. Undecided voters don't care whether Trump's tax policy did not add up.

If policy knowledge was what moved the election, Al Gore would have been President.

Dubious example: John Kerry or Jimmy Carter would be better examples.



Also since Fox News has the last debate, it looks like we've got a reverse 2012 on our hands. Just as Romney won the first of 2012, followed by Biden stopping the direction, and then Obama coming in...so it is that trump shall win the final debate, after this and Pence.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

[rafta_rafta]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

lol

[DrScholl]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

The mental institution should not be giving Trumpbots (or Trumpbots masquerading as traditional moderates) access to the internet.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

The mental institution should not be giving Trumpbots (or Trumpbots masquerading as traditional moderates) access to the internet.

LOL, I've never masqueraded as a moderate. I have been a hardcore liberal for most of my life except for a brief flirtation with conservatism in 2010 and again in the middle of last year.

[Devout Centrist]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

He hasn't yet nor will he.

[Saint Milei]

Even if Hillary wins, she will be a one-term president

[yourelection]

Trump stops the hemorrhaging baiscally sums up the debate. He has not gone off the deep end. He has stabelized and has brought the Republicans behind him again.

How this plays out will remain to be seen. The third debate and what happens in the weeks between will tell us more.

more at: http://www.yourelection.net/2016/10/second-2016-u-s-presidential-debate/

[JerryArkansas]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

Yet he seems not to move beyond 43%?

[mark_twain]

Clinton used an important advantage in this debate--Trump's lack of credibility, resulting from the numerous scandals that have plagued him since the first debate.

She used this advantage very effectively by dismissing many of Trump's attacks as completely false. While doing this, she also mounted her own attacks on Trump to make sure that she won this debate.

It wasn't a spectacular victory like the first debate, but this time she was only trying to preserve the great advantage in support she already had before the second debate.

[Mr. Smith]

Even if Hillary wins, she will be a one-term president

Whoever wins this will be. trump's just too dangerous to chance even once.

If it were Kasich or Rubio, odds such as these wouldn't hurt as much.

[Maxwell]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

that's not where she's at the polls, try again.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Hillary is at 45% in the polls. Trump can easily move past that. I said she should skip the debates, and was correct. She is done.

that's not where she's at the polls, try again.

Well, that's where she is in a decent number of the 4 ways. However, I didn't watch the debate and had a mini breakdown while reading posts here saying Trump was winning, so none of my recent comments should be taken seriously.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Trump just said that NAFTA was "probably the worst trade deal in the history of the world". He said that about the Iran deal earlier in the debate...

Can he even name another trade deal not named NAFTA?

Can the average voter? There's plenty to fault The Donald about, but this is ludicrously small potatoes.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

It seems that Trump has stopped the hemorrhage with his performance tonight.

Perhaps, but he needed considerably more than that to have even a false hope of winning.

[Yank2133]

https://twitter.com/christadubill/status/785326662879698945

This is quite sad.

[ApatheticAustrian]

Even if Hillary wins, she will be a one-term president

maybe she won't even run for re-election.

she would stil have saved the republic and the republican party.

sounds about right.

[IceSpear]

Even if Hillary wins, she will be a one-term president

maybe she won't even run for re-election.

she would stil have saved the republic and the republican party.

sounds about right.

Uh, she won't even run in this election. If she does she'll get indicted.

#Ready4Warren
#InevitaBiden