The WSJ editorial board’s opinion was mixed, with the collective conclusion being that Trump won—barely.
And the winner of the first abominable debate is?
Trump. In what was—shifting metaphors—a photo finish. It shouldn’t have been close. If we know anything, it’s that this is a change election.
From there, each board member contributed their own assessment:
Perhaps she did thump him. But democracies can be unruly things, and Mr. Trump isn’t running on policy detail or finesse. He’s running on “Making America Great Again”—and against Washington and political correctness.—William McGurn
[…] Mrs. Clinton didn’t even bring herself to enforce her own narrative. She demanded that the fact checkers “turn up the volume,” whatever that means, and assailed his economic program as “Trumped-up trickle-down”—as if he was no different than a typical Republican. —Joseph Rago
Donald Trump, sometimes awkwardly and vaguely, expressed anger and disappointment with the plight of American workers, the safety of American cities, the state of our defenses against terrorism. Hillary Clinton was the smiling, condescending defender of the status quo.—James Freeman
[…] for the most part, Mr. Trump allowed Mrs. Clinton to bait him into defending himself—on his financial leverage, his claims about where Barack Obama was born, his position on the Iraq war. Perhaps Mr. Trump demurred deliberately, so as not to be seen attacking the nation’s first female presidential nominee. It was a mistake. Mrs. Clinton will pull no punches, and Mr. Trump squandered his best right hook. —Kimberley A. Strassel
Bret Stephens seems to be the lone wolf among the WSJ pack. He wrote an opinion a few months ago that the best case scenario is a Clinton presidency:
The best hope for what’s left of a serious conservative movement in America is the election in November of a Democratic president, held in check by a Republican Congress. […]
This is the reality that wavering Republicans need to understand before casting their lot with a presumptive nominee they abhor only slightly less than his likely opponent. If the next presidency is going to be a disaster, why should the GOP want to own it?
We’ll see if he changes his position, but I actually kinda doubt it.
So, they’re either bought-and-sold, or fucking insane. One or the other.
Unless you’re a Trump diehard or a 4chan trolley, there’s no way to objectively watch that debate and think Trump looked presidential, conveyed ideas coherently, or even managed to not be destroyed by his competition.
The WSJ editorial staff includes some very intelligent people, which makes their cognitive contortions about Trump all the more wincing. Just goes to show that being intelligent does not necessarily make one reasonable.
As evidenced above, I’m really hoping that Bret Stephens can seize the mic at least once before the election to argue some sense into the WSJ’s receptive readers.
On the radio this morning I heard a post-debate interview with some voters from both sides, and the Trump supporters did indeed insist that he had been presidential. In what universe???
In their weird alternate reality in which Trump is still the triumphant, proud, successful businessman on the cover of ART OF THE DEAL, resplendent in his gold-leafed apartment, here to save America by getting us better deals. I was struck by how nearly every answer he gave all evening long revolved entirely around money: getting countries to pay us for our military or getting other countries to pay more for NATO. I guess if you’re obsessed with wealth, he’s an icon.
I think that for a lot of people, he’s their “what the hell!” candidate. Folks who’re tired of boring old politicians think it’s entertaining to have a loud, blustery non-politician who says crazy stuff off the cuff to “shake up the establishment”. For them, Trump did a good job because he was as Trump-ish as usual.
Well, this is going to help to get those annoying Sanders supporters on-board.
“There is a strain of, on the one hand, the kind of populist, nationalist, xenophobic, discriminatory kind of approach that we hear too much of from the Republican candidates,” she said. “And on the other side, there’s just a deep desire to believe that we can have free college, free healthcare, that what we’ve done hasn’t gone far enough, and that we just need to, you know, go as far as, you know, Scandinavia, whatever that means, and half the people don’t know what that means, but it’s something that they deeply feel.