6 Takeaways From The First Presidential Debate

6 Takeaways From The First Presidential Debate By Donald Trump August 19, 2015 (cropped).jpg: BU Rob13 Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg: Gage [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsClinton and Trump offered substantiative responses Actual substance was, arguably, lacking for much of the debate. But it was not entirely without real, concrete ideas. When asked about relations between law enforcement and people of color, Clinton took a strong stance on gun control and advocated for rebuilding trust between communities and retraining police officers. When defending his plan to cut taxes for the wealthy and businesses, Trump argued that unemployment would decrease and federal revenue increase if that wealth was freed up. Each candidate had at least a few moments in which they offered clear, substantiative responses instead of the petty squabbling many had anticipated. Clintons lines were over-scripted Both candidates illustrated the essential nature of debate preparation. Yet sometimes Clinton came off as  too  prepared, insofar as she struggled to work in obviously scripted lines. At one point Clinton criticized Trumps belief in trickle down economics by calling his policies Trumped up, trickle down economics. It drew praise from supporters, but along with several other lines, it may have alienated undecided voters. Some pundits have accused Clinton of being robotic, with a tendency to regurgitate the facts and one-liners shes already rehearsed. Squeezing in well-worded, but clearly scripted, ripostes did nothing to fight that belief. Trump struggled with honesty   Fact-checkers called out both candidates for false or misleading statements, but most fact-checking sites found far more faults in Trumps remarks. At one point in the debate, moderator Lester Holt brought up Trumps support for the Iraq war in 2002. Trump ardently denied that he had ever supported the war, calling Holt wrong, wrong, wrong. PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website,  called Trumps claim a myth and rated it false  based on an interview with Howard Stern before the invasion in which hed expressed support for the war. Later, Clinton brought up a tweet from 2012 in which Trump said that climate change was a hoax devised by the Chinese to hurt American manufacturers. Trump denied that he had ever said that, but Politico determined that  the tweet was in fact legitimate,  and became one of the most retweeted on Twitter for the night. Trump fumbled with other facts, like saying that he couldnt release his tax returns because he was being audited or that Clinton had been fighting ISIS for her entire adult life. Clinton mastered body language Although as a society we are loathe to admit it, sometimes image matters more than the words that are actually being said. Take the 1960 debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, for example. Radio listeners declared Nixon the winner, but those who saw the debate televised believed Kennedy had won. In this case, speaking purely in terms of body language, Clinton mirrored Kennedys 1960 performance. She mastered the body language game, appearing calm and collected throughout the debate while her opponent energetically pantomimed every statement. Trump, physically speaking, appeared to be rankled like Nixon. Thats not likely to play as well with audiences as Clintons performance. Trump had trouble keeping cool   Trump began the debate without his characteristic flair. For the first 10 to 15 minutes, Trump debated rather calmly. But it didnt take long for Clintons comments to get under his skin, and after those several opening minutes, Trumps anger only intensified. Besides physically indicating his anger through body language, Trump appeared flustered at various points. No doubt he had been prepped with ammunition like the emerging Clinton Foundation scandal, but he hardly brought up any substantial attacks against Clinton besides a half-hearted jab about her emails. He did point out that she had once called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the gold standard and only changed her tune when public opinion turned against the TPP, but failed to press the attack sufficiently. Worse, Trump interrupted Clinton and moderator Lester Holt dozens of times. Contrasted against their calm demeanors, Trump came off as angry and wild. The more his hands fluttered about the screen and his answers devolved into vague circular logic games, the clearer it became that Trump was unable to remain calm. Lester Holt was a successful moderator The quality of the moderator can make or break a debate. With two fiery candidates who have ripped each other apart politically and personally for months on the same stage, Lester Holt had quite the challenge ahead of him. But Holt handled things near-perfectly, even while playing moderator and real-time fact-checker all at once. He reined in the candidates when they strayed off-topic and pressed them for details when their answers werent to his satisfaction, but offered them enough leeway to engage in a meaningful back-and-forth without being cut off. Although Holt has been criticized for not interrupting candidates as often as some viewers would have liked, he managed to strike a balance between interrupting when appropriate and letting debate flow naturally. Overall, each candidate had moments to be proud of and moments to cringe at. Trump shined at the beginning, but quickly lost steam and devolved into ranting while on the defensive. Clintons start was a bit shakier, especially given that some viewers may have seen her as disrespectful for calling Trump by his first name (even though he addressed her with the honorific Secretary). But as Trump faltered, Clinton hit her stride and performed generally well through the following stages of the debate. With each candidate painfully aware of their missteps but now certain of how to target their opponent, the second presidential debate on October 9 is sure to be a nail-biting display of just how bitter this race has become.