Mollie Hartenstein Debate Response

After watching and reflecting on the debate tonight I came to two realizations;

1) The voters are already isolated and this event won’t cause a major shift in the polls and 2) in many ways we are drastically unprepared for the future of our country. Putting these aside, I personally believe Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the debate tonight. I think her body language and presence was very commanding and authoritative in an endearing and empowering way that really made people want to believe and vote for her. Her intelligent control over her facial and bodily expression contributed to a genuine and personable connection between Clinton and the populous. This feeling was furthered by Clinton’s clear portrayal of her policies, and the explanation she gave regarding the topics at hand. Each question was given an on-topic and pointed answer that emphasized her platforms, in contrary to Trump’s ignorance of the topic and unwillingness to dig deep into his policies and plans. On the other hand, Hillary often came off as being too worried and questioning, specifically with her rhetoric toward Trump at the beginning of the debate. She continued to attempt to ask the audience questions  to gain offense rather than stating her advantages over Trump. In line with this, I felt that Clinton actually let her opponent get away with too much. Even though she continued to point out his falsehoods and flaws in logic, she didn’t push him enough on the topics he was clearly uncomfortable with. I think there were issues she could’ve brought up to make him look worse. Looking to the other side of the spectrum I saw Trump as more flustered, uncomfortable, rowdy, and inexperienced at the debate. In terms of content, nothing Trump did gained him anymore voters than he already has. Nothing I saw tonight, I think, would shift undecided voters his way. This problem with his performance is emphasized by the feeling that he didn’t really do anything; nothing new was introduced, nothing was explained, and no new attacks were made. Everything I heard Trump say tonight was just repetition of the rest of his campaign. However, I do believe that Trump showed a more resigned and controlled side of himself tonight, in his ability to not steep to levels of bragging about his manhood on national TV. And I think, unlike Hillary, Trump knew when to push Hillary, he knew how to try and make her look bad. The question of whether she actually did look bad is, once again, up for debate. All in all, I think this was a strong debate and good showing for Hillary Clinton.