US election: First presidential debate ends as a Trump disaster

A record 84 million people watched the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, held last Monday evening. Interest in the debate was enhanced because the polls had shown leading to the debate that Hillary Clinton's unassailable lead of a month ago was reduced to a virtual tie. Whether it was his mounting numbers or his basic narcissistic style, Donald Trump walked into the debate like he was going to an event of a debate club that required no serious preparation.
Donald Trump was misled by his performance in the commander-in-chief's forum early this month and in the Republican primaries. In the former event, he had overawed the moderator NBC's Matt Lauer and took over from him significant segments of the debate to take the focus of the debate from the issues to him that enabled him to hold his ground. Monday night, Donald Trump learnt how different a presidential debate is and how dangerous it is to take it lightly.
Donald Trump found in Lester Holt a tough moderator who was not ready to be bullied by his style or by his nonchalant ways of answering questions. In Hillary Clinton, he found an opponent who was prepared for two Donald Trumps, one prepared for the debate and another not, an unhinged Donald Trump. She found the latter that was to her advantage as she baited him and encouraged him to make major mistakes on temperament, knowledge of the issues and his lack of a plan for any of his huge promises with the nation watching.
The debate was divided into six segments of 15 minutes each in which three topics were debated, namely America's Direction, America's Prosperity and Securing America. The topics were pre-selected by the moderator and it was up to his discretion in which order he introduced these topics. Within these three topics, the moderator asked and encouraged the two candidates to discuss some of the main issues of this election, namely the economy with an emphasis on trade, race, security both domestic and international and foreign affairs.
The state of the economy was the first subject that was debated. Donald Trump seized the opportunity and had his only moments in the debate as he brought international trade into it and blamed NAFTA for misfortunes of the industrial workers in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, two states he needs desperately to win. He was able to put Hillary Clinton on the defensive with NAFTA that he blamed for jobs going to Mexico. He failed to explain however how he would bring jobs that have gone overseas because of NAFTA and other allegedly faulty trade deals back to the country.
The debate was a mismatch outside the 15 minutes at the start when the discussion was on international trade. Hillary Clinton baited Donald Trump even on personal issues and let him do the rest. Donald Trump took the baits and exposed his lack of knowledge and perception of issues of national security and international affairs ending his debate on these issues by rambling, uttering "gibberish" and saying things like on cyber security that made no sense. Donald Trump was at his worst when the nuclear issues were debated and by his own lack of knowledge and Hillary Clinton's encouragement, he established the fact that not just America but also the world would be in real danger if he was elected the President.
Donald Trump made the worst mistake of the evening as a result of the pressure of Hillary Clinton's better credentials as a candidate and debater. He thus said abruptly in a moment when he was lost on the issues that he had the "best temperament" that was received by a large part of those that watched the debate as the joke of the evening. Donald Trump's temperament has been the Achilles heel of his campaign and by the manner he debated, the nation saw how easy it was for Hillary Clinton to get under his skin that established his temperament is one he could discuss publicly only by embarrassing himself.
Donald Trump destroyed some of the major issues with which he had built his campaign against Hillary Clinton thus far during the debate. One was her health. The issue came up mid-way when Donald Trump not just looked lost on the issues but was also gasping for breath and drinking water repeatedly. Hillary Clinton referred to her 112 trips overseas as the Secretary and the 11-hour grilling in the Congress over the Benghazi affair to defend her stamina. It was a poignant rebuttal to the Republican candidate's attempts to make Hillary Clinton's health/stamina an issue. It should now put at rest any doubts about Hillary Clinton's health/stamina and raise questions about Donald Trump's.
Donald Trump was also pushed against the wall on the racist "birther" controversy and the suspicions surrounding his tax returns. Lester Holt did not allow him to dismiss "birther" controversy like he was never seriously interested in his racist attempts to prove President Obama was not born in America. He reminded him how he had pursued the issue over and over again since he manufactured it in 2011 without calling him a liar and Hilary Clinton did the rest. Between them, they exposed the racist lie and pinned it on him keeping it alive to haunt him for the rest of his campaign and deny him in making any overtures for the black vote.
Hillary Clinton played with Donald Trump with the tax issue. She pushed him strongly and Donald Trump came out with more lies to defend himself that further complicated his predicament that established that his tax returns could destroy his candidature if released. Donald Trump made futile attempt to tie his tax returns to Hillary Clinton's emails that only underlined that he has serious problems with his taxes while allowing Hillary Clinton a pass with her emails.
Donald Trump called America a Third to justify his campaign's slogan to "Make America Great Again." America is the third richest country in the world, a fact that one could question only in a fit of insanity. Hillary Clinton did not miss the opportunity calling him "crazy" and that he lived in "his own reality". If his calling America a Third World country was not insanity enough, he did not provide any clue how he would make America number one in the First World! Donald Trump said pretty much what came to his mind to back his lies and his claims. Fact checkers that worked instantly during the debate established Donald Trump lied much more than his opponent.  
Donald Trump debated for 90 minutes in a manner raising questions in many minds how did he manage to come this long. In contrast, Hillary Clinton appeared presidential. And not just that, she used the debate to reach out to groups that would be critical for her on November 08, namely the independent voters and the white suburban women. If these independents are going to vote at all, Donald Trump did not give them a reason to vote for him. Thus when CNN in the battleground state of Florida interviewed uncommitted voters in a restaurant in Orlando just after the debate, 18 of 20 in the group said they would vote for Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton kept her final punch of the evening to reach out to the women, particularly the suburban women reminding them how Donald Trump had called them "pigs", "slobs" and the rest. While Hillary Clinton scored points with these critical groups, Donald Trump appeared incoherent and repeatedly interfered while she was speaking that raised serious questions about his manners. He matched his unmannerly interventions with a body language that was offensive.
Debates are not sure roads to victory. In 2012 Mitt Romney had won the first debate convincingly but lost the election equally convincingly. Donald Trump's case is, however, fundamentally different. The debate helped establish an Abraham Lincoln quote: You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.  Monday night at Hofstra University in New York where the debate was held, Donald Trump came face to face with reality and failed miserably. All of the above led well-known reality show host Jerry Springer to quip that Hillary Clinton belonged in the White House and Donald Trump "in my show".
The writer is a retired Ambassador.
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