Hillary Clinton Dominates in Presidential Debate Round One

By Lorin McLain

On the day after the most anticipated presidential debate in history, the general consensus seems to be the Clinton campaign train is back on track and running full steam ahead. Historically, the first debate helps shape the trajectory of a campaign as it heads into the final stretch. In this one, Hillary Clinton proved the old Donald Trump that dominated his opponents with bluster and overconfidence would not be so effective against the former secretary of state.

That’s not to say the GOP candidate made no attempt to tone it down. The billionaire candidate attempted to start the dialogue as cordial as possible and addressed her as Secretary Clinton. “Is that okay?,” he asked. “Good. I want you to be very happy. It’s very important to me.” But, in a mere few minutes the gloves were off and the Trump of the primaries was in full effect. “Wrong!” he would interject as his opponent spoke.” “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” again and again. Clinton was clearly prepared for this as evident for the most trafficked sound bites that followed. “I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And, yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president.”

Trump, unable to turn the tide of a discussion that was clearly not going in his favor, moved to outright denying facts that are on record uncontested. “Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese,” Clinton reminded the audience. “I did not,” he blurted – contradictive to his Twitter rants against environmental regulations. Clinton said he also supported the invasion of Iraq, which he did on the Howard Stern show on the first anniversary of 9-11. “Wrong!” Trump declared. The following discussions of stop-and-frisk policing policies and bringing up the “President Obama “birther” issue did nothing to help further Trump’s debate strategy that was quickly losing its wheels.

What followed were some answers that undoubtedly left millions of viewers scratching their heads. Trump made an ambiguous attempt to question his opponent’s ability to be commander-in-chief by saying she “tells you how to fight ISIS on her website. I don’t think General Douglas MacArthur would like that too much!” Clinton’s response, “at least I have a plan.” Trump: “No wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire life.” A curious rebuttal given the Islamic State is only a few years old.

The remaining moments were no less filled with shots in the dark from the billionaire candidate. When Clinton stated his economic plan would add five trillion dollars to the national debt, Trump shot out “You have no plan!” Fully composed, she responded, “Oh, but I do. In fact, I’ve written a book about it.” “That’s about all you’ve done,” he quipped.

Trump has received some heat from all angles in the media for his lack of preparation. “The Huffington Post” called it the “worst debate performance in modern times,” while the neo-conservative and Trump sympathetic “Washington Examiner” called his handling of the issues “missed opportunities.”  Sixty-two percent of viewers who watched called Clinton the winner in a CNN poll, while 27 percent said Trump had a better night.