Clinton said she supports Roe v. Wade but also noted that “many states are putting very stringent regulations on women that block them from exercising that choice.” She referred to the difficulty of splitting up families that contain both US citizens and undocumented immigrants. She talked about the US intelligence community’s assessment of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. She talked about her job plan and her tax plan and about independent assessments of their impact. She offered a detailed discussion of the tactical situation surrounding Mosul.
It wasn’t earth-shattering stuff, exactly, and she didn’t have amazing zingers. But she knows what she’s talking about, she’s studied Trump’s policy plans and her own, and she’s prepared to discuss the whole range of issues under consideration. She’s a well-qualified candidate who showed up well-prepared for an important job interview.
Trump, by contrast, lacks any kind of conventional qualification for office. And rather than make up for it by showing that he has a surprising grasp of policy and public affairs given his lack of relevant background, he yet again delivered a clueless, rambling performance that was long on bluster and short on real information. Over the course of the series of presidential debates, he’s shown that he’s tall, he’s pretty good on television, and he carries himself with the distinctive confidence of a mediocre white man.
