Quick take

Donald Trump missed these opportunities:

1. Hillary voted for the Iraq war. Donald Trump was a citizen.
2. Hillary cares about cyber security? So much so that she has a private server that got hacked.
3. Hillary’s a world leader? She’s destroyed almost everything she’s touched.
4. Hillary is first woman and Donald is a sexist?  What about aiding and abetting her husband?
5. Hillary and the Clinton Foundation got nothing while Donald waxed elephant about his tremendous business and taxes. Wasted opportunity.

Trump said after that he didn’t want to go there about Clinton and her husband.

Trump won the first half of the debate. If people left the debate after the first half, he’s in good shape.

Hillary finished strong. Trump really missed multiple ways to attack her.

Trump needs to get over himself. He is too easily baited. He needs to get better at anticipating the next question rather than getting mired in the defense of his manhood.

Did this debate swing one way definitively? While I think Hillary ended on an up note, she came across stilted, political, hackish, and her typical brittle self. Trump started well, but came across as defensive and veered off onto topics that were unnecessary.

Topics not covered:

Any of Hillary’s scandals

Obamacare

Specifics about who has benefitted from this economy

A word on Lester Holt. He was bland and biased. That’s the worst kind of biased because it doesn’t look biased. Every topic was framed in a way to make it difficult for Donald Trump.

I think this was how Hillary did as well as she did:

Clinton’s most effective tactic: bring up a controversy from Trump’s past and let him incriminate himself with his “defense.”

— Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits) September 27, 2016

Donald Trump needs to be better than this. Hillary is as good as she’ll ever be. She’s beatable.