Winners and Losers from the 1st presidential debate - By Chris Cillizza

By Chris Cillizza September 26 at 11:00 PM

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Winners

* Hillary Clinton: Clinton wasn't perfect in this debate. At times she came across as overly rehearsed and robotic. I thought her answer on race relations was way too much head and not enough heart. But, Clinton was head and shoulders better than Trump. She was, unsurprisingly, very well prepared -- using a slew of facts and figures to not only make her positive case but also to slam Trump. She was terrific in bashing Trump on taxes. Her response to Trump's attack on her temperament -- the shoulder shimmy! -- was effective. Her birtherism response -- while low-hanging fruit -- was effective. And, on her biggest weakness -- her decision to establish a private email server at the State Department, Clinton skated. She delivered a full and unequivocal apology -- what a concept! -- and the debate moved on without much of a stir. This was a clear win for her on virtually every front.

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Losers

* Donald Trump: Trump was simply not prepared well enough for this debate. He regularly struggled to deal with questions he had to know were coming. His answer on his five year quest to show that President Obama was not born in this country was like watching a car accident in slow motion. His answer on why he wasn't willing to release his tax returns wasn't much better. His explanation of his position on the Iraq war not only ran counter to the facts but made very little sense. On temperament, perhaps the key to Trump's chances of beating Clinton, he resorted to insisting he had one of the best temperaments and that Clinton had come unhinged in a speech over the weekend. (Sidebar: If you have to say you have one of the best temperaments, you probably don't.) Then there was the fact that Trump left so many potent hits on Clinton unused. He never once used the phrase "basket of deplorables." He barely skirted her email problems. He didn't even mention the words "honest" or "trustworthy." And, as the debate wore on, Trump seemed to resort to his worst instincts -- interrupting Clinton and shouting "not true" while she spoke, with very little back-up for those claims. Not a good night.

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