Clinton Dominate the 3rd Debate
Thinking back to the debate, I was really encouraged and hopeful as the first segment played out.
Segment 1
To remind everyone, the first segment was on the Supreme Court. I actually thought there was some very good discussion which clearly highlighted each candidates positions.
I don't think the format played very well to Trump's strengths, however. Hillary is a policy wonk and can talk policy with ease for hours. The ten minutes of open discussion seemed to be a strain on Donald. Without Chris Wallace interjecting questions, Donald tends to meander and get off track. Recognizing this, I turned to my wife a daughter and said "Donald Trump is going to say something very very stupid tonight."
Segment 2
The second segment seemed to be setup for Donald's strength: immigration. This would be an area where, again, the candidates could be clearly differentiated on policy. Donald could shine, keep to message and connect with voters who are concerned here. Inexplicably, however, instead of going into depth and riffing on his position, Donald instead chose to attack Hillary. The attack came in a very odd manner. On the one hand, he attempted to show her position as being 180 degrees different from his "She wants open borders," while at the same time saying her position is the same as his:
"Hillary Clinton wanted the wall. Hillary Clinton fought for the wall in 2006 or there abouts. Now, she never gets anything done, so naturally the wall wasn't built. But Hillary Clinton wanted the wall."
-and-
"President Obama has moved millions of people out. Nobody knows about it. Nobody talks about it. But under Obama, millions of people have been moved out of this country. They've been deported."
He connects Hillary and Obama all the time. So which is it? He will protect us with a wall and Hillary won't? Or she secretly supports a wall and the deportation of millions? This is where he started to get a little wobbly on the rails, IMO. He should have stuck to what differentiates.
But more than anything, In Hillary's first opportunity to respond in this section she makes a clear attempt to push a Trump button with :
"He had a meeting with the Mexican president. He didn't even raise it (the Wall). [B]He choked[/B]."
I paused the live feed at this point and said "Watch this! She just pushed a button. He always talks about Romney being a loser and choking in the last election. He won't be able to ignore this, and he will get derailed and go off message" And sure enough:
"Chris, I think it’s -- I think I should respond. First of all, I had a very good meeting with the President of Mexico. Very nice man. We will be doing very much better with Mexico on trade deals. Believe me."
This was the part where he brought in that Hillary wanted the wall and NAFTA...go figure. But he wasn't done taking the chum Hillary was throwing in the water for him.
He then took the bait as Hillary pivoted to Wikileaks and Russian hacking. "But you are very clearly quoting from WikiLeaks. What is really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans."
This pivot was masterful, and the Donald took it hook, line and sinker. So in the section that should have been Donald's strength, they started talking about Wikileaks , Putin and Russia in general - On Hillary's terms! This is the section that made Trump look like a middle schooler as he interjected "You're the puppet!"
It also made him look naive, IMO, when he clearly rejects the independent analysis of 17 intelligence agencies. Hillary missed an opportunity to say something along the lines of "So he knows more than the generals and the intelligence professionals as well," but many would be able to fill in the blanks here.
Then as the discussion was devolving into nuclear weapons proliferation (In the immigration segment!), Donald was getting visibly annoyed and agitated. Could he get back on message, or was he completely off balance at this point?
Segment 3
Moving to the Third section, the economy would provide another opportunity for the candidates to clearly distinguish themselves from the other. Hillary took the opportunity as the first responder in this section to give 299 words on her plans and then 103 on what she sees as the impact of his plan.
Donald, when it was his turn, made another blunder, IMO by leading with
"Well, first of all, before I start on my plan, her plan is going to raise taxes and even double your taxes. Her tax plan is a disaster."
And then he goes back to the last section! He is like a dog with a bone. He can't move on:
"But I would like to start off where we left. Because when I said Japan and Germany and I'm not just singling them out. But South Korea, these are very rich countries. Saudi Arabia. Nothing but money. We protect Saudi Arabia. Why aren't they paying?"
What he ended up doing is taking the time to talk about his economic plan to basically say "My plan is to make our allies pay up for us protecting them, and then we will negotiate great trade deals" Some good discussion followed, but Trump seemed to have difficulty getting beyond NAFTA; mentioning it 5 times in this section.
It’s Over
By this time, the debate, IMO was over. Some may say he held his own until the refusal to accept the election results. I think differently. I think the game plan of Hillary's was executed to near perfection to get under Trump's skin. When you get to that point, he completely loses focus and goes off message. He grasps as straws. The near-to-the-end non-sequiter ("What a nasty woman!") was destiny at that point, as Hillary threw another jab about taxes; this time payroll tax avoidance.
So in this heavyweight fight, there was no knockout, per se, but in 6 sections, I would score it 5-0-1 for Hillary.
The Transcript for those who might be interested.
