So anybody going to be watching the "battle of the wits" tonight?

[Doc]

or should I say "DIM-WITS"?

Some leftist believe Hilary should come out and attack Trump on his truthfulness concerning his involvement with Russia. IMO this would be dumb. Anything that comes to truth and honesty is setting up Hillary, and Trump will jump all over it. Granted, the Donald isn't the clean cut guy but then he isn't portraying himself as such. Odds are she tries to paint him as the racist etc... so I hope he is ready (he should be). Odd are she attacks from a foreign policy angle but then I'm not sure that is going to work either based on where our foreign policy is.

He, on the other hand needs to hammer her on her health but do so in a sly manner. Also focus on the Clinton foundation and all the scandals plus the foreign policy nightmares. I'll also hammer on Bengazi. What I do like is that apparently she has little idea of which Trump will be there thus has been preparing for the "nice Trump" and the "mean Trump". Guess being "unpredictable" isn't a bad thing since she is wasting time preparing for somebody who isn't going to be there.

[Catonahottinroof]

If I were him, I'd tell her I donated $150K to your political campaigns because I know you can be bought.

[Doc]

I expect her to make it about race and gender

I expect him to make it about everything else.

[suncat05]

I'm probably not going to watch. What else can either one say that they haven't said about each other already?
Myself, this is a waste of time. I've already made up my mind. I don't need any more persuading. I realize that this attempt at political theater is solely for those who are undecided, of which apparently there are many.
Although I do believe that between these two there "could be" some truly entertaining comments being made.

[CitizenBBN]

I have no plans to watch. first I'll be working and won't have tv there, but I probably wouldn't anyway. I'm super interested in the outcome, but my watching won't change it.

Please let her hit him on Russia, etc. If hes smart he has devastating responses there, with her signing off on a deal to sell 20% of the US uranium reserve to Russian backed companies while her husband was getting $1million in speaking fees in Moscow, not to mention her being the prime architect of the "reset" that only helped Russia gain power, and then throw in how she personally worked to bring US technology to Russia and then is surprised they are using technology to do things like hack the US.

I admit it, this is one time I really wish I was the GOP nominee. It should be easy to destroy Clinton in a debate, even the pitiful format politicians use. Getting her on the stage one on one where she can't run away would be my dream come true (not my biggest dream, that involves supermodels and owning an island). Sure she'll lie and obfuscate but it wouldn't be enough to hide the obviousness of her duplicity to those undecided folks.

Trump just needs to be Presidential Trump, the guy who went to Mexico. Just look calm and in control and Presidential. Doesn't even matter what he says policy wise. Focus on that and then on Hillary being corrupt and that should do it. Handle the policy questions with basic political answers heavy on how as an outsider he'll get to the heart of the issue rather than do business as usual. That should be about his only answer to anything policy wise, just said in different versions.

Like I said months ago, he has the avenue to win this thing, but he has to reign it in and be a guy people can see as a President. If he does that he's probably going to win b/c Hillary is so clearly corrupt and is the embodiment of an establishment candidates when the whole country on both sides is absolutely fed up with the establishment, but he has to look like someone who can just handle the mantle of office.

[KeithKSR]

I have doubts Hillary is up to a 90 minute debate with no stool. She was late going back out to the podium during one of the short debates with Bernie.

[CitizenBBN]

I have doubts Hillary is up to a 90 minute debate with no stool. She was late going back out to the podium during one of the short debates with Bernie.

They customized her podium with a 10" step stool so she'll look to be Trump's height. He needs to bring one out with him and be taller just for fun.

[KeithKSR]

They customized her podium with a 10" step stool so she'll look to be Trump's height. He needs to bring one out with him and be taller just for fun.

That's a long way to fall, unless they plan on her personal nurse to be there to catch her again.

[dan_bgblue]

Who won?

[CitizenBBN]

Who won?

Trump should win. If it's a draw, a push, he wins. If he wins, he wins.

He just needs to look Presidential, and if he happens to come out of it with a quoted one liner then he wins outright. All that typically survives these debates is if there is a one liner that gets the media churning.

His might be that he'll release his taxes when she releases the 33,000 emails she deleted. I may be biased b/c I know the seriousness of what she did, but I think that may be the winner in this one.

[Doc]

Who won?

Depends on who you decided was going to win before the debate started.

Trump was rather repeatative. IMO he missed a couple chances to bury her. I'd have gone after her when national security came up especially when she had first shot and questioned his security measures. I'd have HAMMERED her about it being nothing compare to a private server, or I'd have suggested the computer leaks "could have" even come off her server.

He got slightly hammered on the birther stuff but overall handled it well. Same with the releasing of taxes thing, although he was smart to turn it to the deleted e-mails.

He tried to hammer her on the Iran deal and NAFTA but did poorly on explaining why tax cuts are beneficial in bringing back business. Her plan is to tax the rich and then tax them more. That only leads to more rich leaving the country, more businesses leaving the country. Tax cuts bring business and frees capital to expand business.

[Darrell KSR]

Depends on who you decided was going to win before the debate started.

Trump was rather repeatative. IMO he missed a couple chances to bury her. I'd have gone after her when national security came up especially when she had first shot and questioned his security measures. I'd have HAMMERED her about it being nothing compare to a private server, or I'd have suggested the computer leaks "could have" even come off her server.

He got slightly hammered on the birther stuff but overall handled it well. Same with the releasing of taxes thing, although he was smart to turn it to the deleted e-mails.

He tried to hammer her on the Iran deal and NAFTA but did poorly on explaining why tax cuts are beneficial in bringing back business. Her plan is to tax the rich and then tax them more. That only leads to more rich leaving the country, more businesses leaving the country. Tax cuts bring business and frees capital to expand business.
Good summary.

[KeithKSR]

Hillary's main goal going in was to prove she was likable, trustworthy and honest. Nothing happened to show she is any of those things.

Trump had to not lose his temper and call her Crooked Hillary and not go off the rails. He didn't.

I saw it as a draw, as neither gained voters. Online polls seem to unanimously be saying Trump won.

http://drudgereport.com/flashnyd.htm

http://time.com/4506217/presidential-debate-clinton-trump-survey/

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/26/vote-who-won-the-first-presidential-debate.html

[KeithKSR]

Big loser, Lester Holt. He blew the stop and frisk call, claiming it was ended because it was ruled unconstitutional. Trump corrected him that the ruling came from a lower court judge and De Blasio failed to appeal, but higher courts elsewhere have upheld stop and frisk.

[CitizenBBN]

Big loser, Lester Holt. He blew the stop and frisk call, claiming it was ended because it was ruled unconstitutional. Trump corrected him that the ruling came from a lower court judge and De Blasio failed to appeal, but higher courts elsewhere have upheld stop and frisk.

Imo the biggest loser is one again the format.

There's no need to have a moderator all questions. Each side gets x number of chances to introduce a topic and a series of rebuttals, then the next one starts. Moderator is there to keep the clock and end interruptions and such but they don't pick the questions.

Thus all bias is eliminated as each candidate picks their topics. Throw in some cross examination of you really want a real debate.

[MickintheHam]

I watched for 10 minutes and started doing laundry and vacuuming. Monday is laundry day and that whole thing was ridiculous.

[suncat05]

Wow Mick! You're doing laundry AND vacuuming after 9 pm? The "Boss" must be cracking the whip pretty hard on ya! But, I do understand too, because if Momma ain't happy then nobody is happy.

[Doc]

I suspect Trump "slow played" this. He didn't bring up too many things to not be holding back some stuff. No mention of the uranium sales to Russia by the administration and Clinton, no mention of the Clinton Foundation, hardly any mention of the e-mail and server scandal. IMO these are issues that are the biggest red flags on her and he swallowed his tongue on them. Me, I say he is holding that card up his sleeve until the final debate when he goes all in with attack mode, but does so in a dignified manner. That is when he will get the biggest bang for his buck.

[suncat05]

I didn't watch last night, but I agree with Doc, Trump is a shrewd customer and will bring the hammer down on her in the last debate. Perhaps WikiLeaks will have released some more e-mails for added scrutiny just before that last debate as well.
It sounds to me like last night was "even par" for both, so the heat will be turned up for the next two debates. Playing "even par" was exactly what Trump needed to do in this first debate. I'm not buying that he wasn't prepared. It sounds to me like he's baiting the trap. Yeah, I heard she looked and sounded good, but can she keep that up for two more debates? I think her nerves will be frayed badly by the end of these debates. JMHO.

[KeithKSR]

I suspect Trump "slow played" this. He didn't bring up too many things to not be holding back some stuff. No mention of the uranium sales to Russia by the administration and Clinton, no mention of the Clinton Foundation, hardly any mention of the e-mail and server scandal. IMO these are issues that are the biggest red flags on her and he swallowed his tongue on them. Me, I say he is holding that card up his sleeve until the final debate when he goes all in with attack mode, but does so in a dignified manner. That is when he will get the biggest bang for his buck.

Greg Gutfield likened it to the first day of a three day golf tourney, slow play the first round and size up the competition.