Miles Lynn Debate Reaction

Trump

2 Areas of Strength

-Being on offense, he seems to always want to attack. Right from the start Trump was on the attack, pressing Hillary with questions and quick rebuttals to what she had to say. Trump was making remark after remark on Hillary, as well as interrupting her speaking. Whether that was acceptable or not, I feel that showed that Trump was ready to fight.

-Associated Hillary with failures of status quo, attached current failures to Hillary. A lot of people in our Country right now believe that we need to be going in a different direction. Trump realizing this took advantage, and made a some arguments saying Hillary is just going to be another Obama, what he’s doing isn’t working, and we need to move on. The American people are looking for a change, not the status quo that Trump described Hillary as.

2 Areas of Weakness

-Doesn't demonstrate any willingness to acknowledge he’s spoken loosely and sometimes falsely. Trump throughout the debate was faced with past actions that have been true, and that he has denied, without any acknowledgement of being wrong. He doesn't want to admit when he is in the wrong so he tries to cover it up, saying he never said that, or he doesn't know what your talking about. It does not make him look that great, especially if the things he denies he has said are true.

-Obama Birtherism situation response. This part of the debate was so bad for Trump, that it was embarrassing. Supporting racist claims that President Obama is a Muslim, when most knew he was born a U.S. citizen in Hawaii. Along with saying how he got Obama to produce his birth certificate, and Hillary couldn't. You could really start to tell that Trump wasn’t too prepared for this debate.

Hillary

2 Areas of Strength

-Able to provide policy specifics when attacked by Trump. Trump was on the attack tonight, but Hillary came prepared, her prep showed, and for almost every attack Trump had Hillary was able to point to one of her Policies as support for her. She seemed to handle any question from Trump by pointing to one of her policies that would make Trumps argument invalid.

-Stayed even keeled and posed and never lost her cool. I thought this had a down and upside, but the upside was she looked much more composed than Trump. While Trump was interrupting and was getting excited Hillary kept her cool. She talked level headedly the whole night, and to me looked way more presidential.  

2 Areas of Weakness

-Flipside she seemed aloof, above it all. When Trump was going on these long sort of rants, Hillary just sat back and let it happen, not knowing whether to jump in or just sit back. She chose sit back most of the time, and it made her seem like she was just letting him talk, thinking what Trump was saying would hurt him. But what would have been better is if she jumped in and said something.

-Trade issue/policie lost exchange, Trump able to bring up NAFTA, TPP for and against it. Trump early on went to Trade policy and issues, an area where Trump has an advantage because of what he has done for most of his life. When Trump brought up NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) I feel like Hillary didn’t do a great job of defending it, along with when the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership).

In the end, I feel Hillary was the winner of this first debate. Although Her trade policy wasn’t great and she seemed a little aloof, she came out with specific policies and way of getting things done. Compared to Trump, who is a lot of talk and not a lot of action. Also Hillary kept her cool/composure, while Trump was Trump, saying he went on little rants and was always interrupting. Although Trump had a few good moments in the debate, I think the obvious winner is Hillary Clinton.