"what she lacks in owns, she made up for in reassuring calmness" https://t.co/LlHBukKzrk
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) September 27, 2016
Trump looks pissed off when Hillary talks.
Hillary looks amused when Trump talks.— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) September 27, 2016
Trump complaining that someone is being inappropriate and not nice to him. This is a thing that happened. In real life.
— (((Megan McArdle))) (@asymmetricinfo) September 27, 2016
When you’ve lost Megan McArgleBargle…
So THIS is what it looks like if a comedian with a tight 5 suddenly has to do a full hour.
— Josh Patten (@thejoshpatten) September 27, 2016
Donald Trump had one job tonight: don't take the bait.
He took the bait.https://t.co/LaQhFm8WDL
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 27, 2016
… Smiling, serene, egged on by each groan and grunt and interruption she goaded from her rival, Clinton provoked Trump again and again—over his refusal to release his tax returns, his years-long “racist lie” about President Barack Obama’s birthplace, his foreign-policy views, and his treatment of women. Meanwhile, Trump drew some blood on the issue of trade, specifically calling out crucial battleground states in the process, but found little on Clinton’s most vulnerable fronts: e-mail, family foundation and policy crises of her tenure as secretary of state…
Trump started the debate relatively subdued, but grew increasingly testy as the night went on—and as Clinton’s jabs kept coming. He used negative emotion words like “terrible,” “stupid,” and “disaster” about 50 percent more often at the end of the debate than the beginning, according to a Bloomberg Politics analysis with Quantified Communications…
A CNN snap poll found that 62 percent of voters who watched said Clinton won the debate compared to 27 percent for Trump.
His son Donald Trump, Jr. defended his father after the debate: “There’s a time for temperament, and there’s a time where you actually have to defend yourself,” he said…
Audience erupts in laughter when Trump says he has better temperament than Clinton https://t.co/Bceo3Lt8FX pic.twitter.com/Yzhmyq7iWY
— The Hill (@thehill) September 27, 2016
Small note: Donald Trump doesn't actually know what "temperament" means.
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) September 27, 2016
Trump's famously great temperament is going to love it when his panicking team tells him he has to cram for the next debate.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) September 27, 2016
Thing is, though — for all the well-deserved mockery, Trump said a bunch of stuff that in any other election cycle would have even the Media Village Idiots perturbed. He once again advocated “taking the oil” from Iraq (which would be a war crime, if it were physically possible); he said “we” should be demanding protection money from NATO; he thought “China should just go into North Korea” (because a manly commander like Douglas MacArthur would’ve done just that); he derided the Fifth Amendment; he said that stop & frisk was “extremely effective in reducing crime” (it wasn’t) until “a very anti-police judge” ruled against it, and repeatedly contradicted the moderator who pointed out that it had been found unconstitutional…