Trump also claimed that the Iran nuclear agreement was ill-advised because sanctions were devastating that country, which is untrue. He repeated the conservative lie that the United States "gave" the Iranians money to secure the treaty. (Blocked Iranian funds were released as part of the agreement.) It was somewhere around this time that Trump began talking somewhat incoherently about the need to protect "the cyber."
Game Over
Observers pointed out that Trump became increasingly less comprehensible as the evening wore on. He also spent the evening sniffling loudly as he spoke -- which, had Clinton done it, would undoubtedly have been characterized by the right as evidence of a life-threatening disease.
This summary makes the debate sound more substantive than it was. There was too much talk about the candidates -- about Clinton's stamina, emails, and personality, or Trump's taxes, temperament (which he claimed was "my greatest asset"), and fibbing -- and too little about the voters: their fears, their needs, their dreams, and their changes for a better future.
Perhaps that was inevitable, given the media feeding frenzy around this debate and the personality-driven nature of our political process. But it was unfortunate just the same. Trump got the reality show spectacle he wanted, even if it didn't go his way. Clinton missed a number of chances to rise above the "Super Bowl" aspect of the debate and appeal directly to the voters she needs the most.
As for the American people -- well, they got quite a show. But they often didn't get the answers they deserved. There was too much contest, and not enough content, in Monday night's debate.
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