I wasn’t aware anyone seriously believed she did win all three debates. I think that your summary is pretty accurate - all you have to do is look at how the polls shifted after each debate to see who won.
After the first debate, Hillary’s leads jumped everywhere. She retook the lead in almost all the swing states she had lost it, especially in Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, and Colorado (people forget Trump was tied or leading in Colorado before the first debate).
After the second (which came about two days after the access Hollywood tape), all of the daily trackers jumped in trump’s direction. Granted they were likely to normalize given how big his fall was right after the tape dropped, but he clearly stabilized a race that was spiraling out of control for him.
The third debate barely had any impact on the polls. It was the least watched debate iirc and came a few days before the Comey letter dropped, which had a much bigger impact on the race.
I think it’s fair to say she won decisively in the first debate and perhaps a narrow win in the third debate. But she clearly lost the second debate, at least in terms of the impact the debate had on the race.
This. The 2nd debate was a clear Trump win and the 1st debate a clear Hillary win.
That's a BS revisionist take(
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/clinton-trump-debate-poll-229581). The second debate did not aid Trump in the polls, if anything it helped Clinton.
Clinton had a 2 point lead before the first debate. By the end of the third debate it was up to 6 points. Her lead remained roughly at that level until the Comey letter, which by the end reduced her lead to 3 points(
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html).
