Poll shows Clinton won first debate against Trump

Published September 28, 2016
NEW YORK: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump leave the stage after the first presidential debate at the Hofstra University.—AFP
NEW YORK: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump leave the stage after the first presidential debate at the Hofstra University.—AFP

WHITE PLAINS: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton jumped back onto the campaign trail on Tuesday after a testy first head-to-head debate in which Mrs Clinton frequently forced her prickly opponent on to the back foot.

The White House hopefuls sparred over temperament, judgement, trade, terrorism and other issues in a televised match-up on Monday night that seemed to have gone in favour of the Democrat.

In a snap CNN poll of 521 voters, 62 per cent judged that Mrs Clinton had won the debate against 27 per cent for Mr Trump, with most mainstream political analysts agreeing that the Democrat was the stronger performer.

Nate Silver, a respected election analyst at FiveThirtyEight.com, predicted a two to four per cent bump in support for Mrs Clinton, after the most recent polls showed the race in a virtual dead heat.


Moderator didn’t put key questions to former first lady, alleges Trump


Both sides cried victory on Tuesday as the spin game that began the very instant the debate ended kept up in full gear.

“This debate was a tremendous opportunity for the voters to look at both candidates on the stage and determine who was prepared to be president of the United States,” Mrs Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, said on CNN.

“For Hillary in particular, we thought this was a great opportunity for her to talk about the things that she’s going to do to make a real difference in people’s lives,” he said.

Mr Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, praised the Republican candidate’s tone and demeanour, in particular towards the end for not bringing up Bill Clinton’s past sexual indiscretions, although he alluded to them.

During the debate at New York’s Hofstra University, with an anticipated audience of up to 100 million, Mrs Clinton repeatedly questioned her rival’s fitness to serve in the Oval Office.

She painted the celebrity real estate mogul as fatally out of touch and willing to say “crazy things” to get elected.

“You live in your own reality,” said the 68-year-old Democrat, who sought to project her steady experience.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump said moderator Lester Holt had failed to ask Mrs Clinton questions about key points such as the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, during her watch as secretary of state or about ethical issues surrounding the Clinton Foundation.

“He didn’t ask her about her scandals,” Mr Trump said. “He didn’t ask her about a lot of things she should have been asked about.”

On Monday night Mr Trump played the populist bruiser, pitching to frustrated blue-collar voters fed up with establishment politicians.

“Let me tell you, Hillary has experience. But it’s bad, bad experience,” said the 70-year-old billionaire, accusing the former secretary of state, first lady and US senator of being a “typical politician. All talk, no action. Sounds good, doesn’t work.”

As the temperature rose, Mr Trump brought out the verbal brickbats, repeatedly interrupting Mrs Clinton and even questioning her stamina after a bout of pneumonia. He appeared increasingly irritated, at one point rolling his eyes and emitting a frustrated “ugh”.

“A lot of Americans will look at tonight’s debate and see an individual who is prepared to become president of the United States, and she was up against an impostor,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

“You saw not a perfect performance by Hillary Clinton, but as much as an imperfect performance as you can imagine by her opponent,” he said.

Mrs Clinton’s brightest moments came when debate turned to foreign policy, while Mr Trump’s came when he tapped into malaise about politics and the economy.

Mr Trump squarely blamed Mrs Clinton and the political class for losing jobs to Mexico and China through what he termed bad trade deals and incompetence.

Mrs Clinton tried to undercut Mr Trump’s CEO-in-chief acumen by accusing him of having “stiffed” small business contractors throughout his business career.

She asked Mr Trump to release his tax returns, suggesting he might be lying about his much-vaunted wealth, his charitable donations, his tax bill or his ties with foreign benefactors.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2016

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