Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

When we show up, we win.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Republicans in disarray!

People are complicated. Love is not.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Books are my comfort food!

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / We May Not Get Through All of the Debate Questions and Beyond Open Thread

Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    Keith P.

    Oh, man, this is just brutal. Hillary is landing haymaker after haymaker on Trump, who just looks like an angry little kid with mommy issues.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m guessing Kellyanne Conway is sucking down a couple of shots of very expensive vodka right now

    He’s bragging about not saying something “very tough” about Hillary and her family

  14. 14.

    Keith G

    Patton Oswalt ‏@pattonoswalt 2m2 minutes ago
    Trump isn’t being beaten.

    He got beaten an HOUR ago. At this point, Hillary is desecrating his corpse at a cannibal feast. #Debates2016

  18. 18.

    ? Martin

    Wow, that was definitely something.

    My prediction: Trump supporters thought he won because Clinton sounded like a bitch. The end.

  19. 19.

    smintheus

    A lot of back and forth, tons of noise and static, possibly favoring Trump’s tactics. Then at the very end Clinton punched Trump in the mouth, and he stood there sputtering and whining about how unfairly Clinton has attacked him. TKO Clinton in the last round.

  21. 21.

    amk

    was the audience packed with dick supporters? the nutsos were clapping their kind towards the end despite the requests at the beginning not to do so.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    I thought Hillary killed it. It was SO SMART for her to just let him roll and get himself tangled up in his own bullshit.

  26. 26.

    JMG

    @? Martin: I agree. In all seriousness, I don’t expect the debate to change many minds. But for the undecideds and leaners who did tune in, they have to feel insulted. Trump wasn’t ready. He didn’t care enough about their votes to be ready. I know that’s how people I know who are not particularly liberal nor conservative felt about Bush’s first debate in 2004 and Obama’s in 2012.

  27. 27.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I am going to be a bit contrarian. I have a fair grasp of what conservatives like, and there were a couple of sections there where non-liberals will think he did very well, especially the parts about NAFTA. If your standard of success is angrily belittling the other person with mostly coherent sounding lies, then he had a few good moments.

    Not many, though. After the NAFTA bit, she started getting under his skin, and he spent most of the debate whining about how unfair she is to him and how great he is, including a lengthy speech about how Hannity will totally tell everyone that he was against Iraq.

  34. 34.

    dmsilev

    Jonathan Karl thought Trump did well in the first half, but regards the Birther and Iraq War answers as turning points.

  37. 37.

    magurakurin

    @amk: no. People were told not to clap. So, the Clinton people respected that request. The Shitgibbon people are assholes, so they didn’t.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    Two quick thoughts

    if you want to have some fun tomorrow morning ask your Republican friends where they thought Trump really shone tonight

    And assuming he even shows up for the second debate you can expect them to be even more unhinged loud offensive and slimy .

    Let Trump be Trump I say !!

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    Oh and bonus points for any reporter who follows up with any member of the deep bench to ask them why they couldn’t have done this nine months ago

  45. 45.

    Mothra

    Lester Holt figured out a way to fact check by putting the shit that trump has lied about directly into the question

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    (I haven’t read the other comments yet.)

    Holt did a good job. He did his best to get Trump to answer reasonable questions.

    Hillary did great.

    Trump did better than I thought he would, to be honest. He had his sound bites that he wanted to keep hammering and his supporters no doubt will point to those things. But he was “unbelievable” in his own words.

    If there’s justice, Hillary will get a big bounce, and she’ll do even better in the next debate (assuming there is one).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    hilts

    Even Chris Matthews said Hillary won a shutout against Trump

    Steve Schmidt – Trump lost and got incoherent at the end.

  54. 54.

    Kropadope

    Not only did his statements contain nothing of substance, he repeated EVERYTHING at least once, maybe a dozen times. Also, it’s funny to hear him complaining about interruptions when he interrupted her frequently.

  55. 55.

    lamh36

    ‏@DraperRobert 23m23 minutes ago East Garden City, NY
    I actually talked to Sean Hannity about Iraq. He said no transcripts or audio to confirm Trump’s claim.

  56. 56.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @CZanne: Howard Dean, on Twitter: Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user?

    day-yum, I thought it would be a comedian, maybe Begala

    ETA: God, Brian Williams is as bad a babbling idiot as Trump

  57. 57.

    hellslittlestangel

    Looks like both the public and the pundits agree: Hillary turned Trump steaks into Trump hamburger.

  62. 62.

    laura

    Lester Holt should get mountains of praise from every quarter. He fact checked (but suffered Trumps interruptions and obfuscations) and held both to a good selection of issues.
    HRC kicked serious ass!
    So much great live twitter-twatting by Ten Grain, Patton Oswalt, and David Gregory.
    Just kidding, David Gregory got his ass handed to him in the twitter-sphere.

  63. 63.

    Anoniminous

    True Moderate Independent are about 2% of the electorate and Hillary just won them all.

    Those Republicans who won’t vote for Hillary and can’t stand Donald will probably sit out the election, lowering the GOP vote in close House and Senate races.

    Sum up: this was a disaster for the GOP

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    Christ, Nicolle Wallace is an asshole. Well, we realize that Trump fucked up, but the viewers won’t, because they’re morons.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    Damn. Blink and a new thread.

    Repeated from downstairs:

    Steve Schmidt (R): Trump moved into incoherence and babble for the last half.

    This from the guy who gave us Palin.

  68. 68.

    aliasofwestgate

    She wiped the floor with him. That was fun to watch! Even if I cringed at the babble from tRumpf constantly.

  69. 69.

    Cacti

    PBS said they couldn’t get a comment from anyone in the Trump campaign on his debate performance.

    They know he got pantsed.

  73. 73.

    magurakurin

    @Baud: yeah, that’s a waste of time. I saw a few of the initial comments. I more or less agree. Shitgibbon won’t pick up any new support.

    But it is now abundantly clear that a good 40 to 45% of Americans are complete and utter fucking morons supporting this asshole. It comes down to who votes: more normal people or more morons.

  76. 76.

    Mary G

    Jake Tapper said Trump had a great first half hour then lunged at every piece of bait she dangled in front of him like a rabid wolf.

  78. 78.

    phoebes from highland park

    Someone called Arthur Brooks already has a post up at the NYT Opinion page about “Is Hillary Repeating Al Gore’s Sighing Problem?” Already!!!

  80. 80.

    PsiFighter37

    Nobody on CNN is defending him. Even Tapper was stumped.

    This election is over. The media smells blood and is going to tear him apart the next 6 weeks.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @debit:

    And I humbly beg Lester Holt’s pardon. I think he did an okay job.

    Yeah, my earlier assessment was a bit harsh, in retrospect.

  83. 83.

    wenchacha

    Oh, wtf, SnoozeHour? Brooksie still wants to be able to feel good about Donnie, but Trump is making it difficult. And Hillary still got bashed by Mark whatsiname for giving “long answers.” SUre, but in English, amiright?

  84. 84.

    magurakurin

    @Mnemosyne: What’s assholish about it? It’s the fucking truth. Just like deplorables. His moron supporters will absolutely see this as huge win for him. bigly.

  87. 87.

    dmsilev

    Fuck, Matthew Dowd (GOP apparatchik) on ABC saying that Trump lost the debate. And apparently the Trump campaign doesn’t know what to say to the reporters after the fact.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    Would someone who has served in the military please explain to Steve Schmidt that he doesn’t know what the 7 Ps are. Especially as there are only six words in the statement. Thank you!
    Its proper preparation prevents piss poor performance.

  102. 102.

    CaseyL

    Well, that seems to have gone well. I’m sure the MSM will try to spin it, and ScrotalYam’s team will definitely try to spin it, but from what I can tell, Hillary mopped the floor up with him.

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: I wonder if military people have a word for wannabes like Schmidt who so desperately wish they could claim to be vets now that they’re too old to actually, you know, enlist?

    ETA; Tweety already speculating that Trump will back out of future debates.

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @wenchacha:
    On behalf of all Jewish Americans ever and everywhere, we would kindly request that David Brooks please stop acting out his mid-life, existential crisis in public. It is embarrassing to all of us and makes us look bad in front of all the other Americans.
    Thanks,
    The Members of Your Tribe
    (get it together or we’re voting you out…)

  108. 108.

    Cain

    @Matt McIrvin: they probably asked him if he had video or audio evidence of Trump saying that and he knew he didn’t so he had to tell the truth. Otherwise, everybody would be asking him for the transcript!

  111. 111.

    JMG

    A Julia Azari of 538 with whom I am not familiar just posted a version of the “Trump did well because he didn’t soil himself” theme so popular before the debate. Many people only see what they want to see.

  113. 113.

    smintheus

    Pence is on CBS trying desperately to sound enthusiastic about Trump’s performance. Sounds like he doesn’t quite know what to say except to complain that Clinton was “making demeaning comments” about the T. Underwhelming defense of the guy at the top of his ticket.

  115. 115.

    CZanne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m’a gonna bet that Dr. Dean has seen his share of coke heads in his life. I trust his observations. (My bet initially was a beta blocker, because he started off so low energy, but now I’m leaning to 500 mg Adderall, crushed.)

    Okay, now I want pundits. (No cable.)

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    Initial reaction is that his “nuclear weapons are our single greatest threat” ought to be Trump’s version of Ford’s “Poland is not a communist country.”

    Had he said nuclear proliferation, would not deem it a gaffe. Would not agree that it’s the greatest threat but would be willing to give him a mulligan on that, in context.

  119. 119.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    Holy shit. Cokie Roberts thought Trump didn’t do well. Do we have an Andrea Mitchell assessment yet?

    Fuckem, I’m holding out for Mara Liasson.

  121. 121.

    Jeffro

    @Cacti:

    PBS said they couldn’t get a comment from anyone in the Trump campaign on his debate performance.

    They know he got pantsed.

    I look forward to the spin in the morning…will they blame Holt, will they go full-on with the slimy stuff, both, I dunno. She gave the Trump camp no opening and no wonder: this is what happens when a completely fact-free campaign is led by a completely emotionally-stunted moron.

    My daughter watched the first hour with me, and we were running out of “the dog ate my homework metaphors”. But wow she learned a lot tonight, including major respect for Secretary Clinton. 16 “deep benchers” and probably more than a few Dems couldn’t do what she did tonight, and she did it WITHOUT BEING LOUD, WITHOUT SCREAMING!! Hear me, Donald?

  122. 122.

    Renie

    i’m sure he reminded all women of the a$$hole in meetings who interrupts them cuz he thinks he knows anything

  123. 123.

    Mnemosyne

    @PsiFighter37:

    Was it Chuck Toddler who went off on some weird rant about how both candidates sucked because they only talked about themselves? I think he’s the one with the stupid-looking goatee.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    On behalf of all Jewish Americans ever and everywhere, we would kindly request that David Brooks please stop acting out his mid-life, existential crisis in public. It is embarrassing to all of us and makes us look bad in front of all the other Americans.
    Thanks,
    The Members of Your Tribe
    (get it together or we’re voting you out…)

    I’ll spring for the billboard here, Adam. I’m just saying.

  129. 129.

    SFAW

    @mike in dc:

    50-50 Trump skips the other debates.

    #TrumpDebateDuckoutExcuses coming up?

    “It’s not you, it’s me.”
    “I have to do my hair those nights.”
    “There’s a really great episode of ‘CHiPs’ I want to watch, and my VCR is broken.”
    “Wait, was that LAST night? My secretary entered it in my calendar wrong.”
    “I want to spend more time with my family.”

    usw.

  130. 130.

    Joel

    @JMG: They probably have that shit lined up before the debate even happens. Unless he literally dies during the debate they were going to run that stuff. It’s pure clickbait, refuge for Trump supporters who may seek it at the very least.

    As of yesterday evening, Yahoo was still running an article about how the Marlins pushed Jose Fernandez’s start back a day to face the Mets…

  131. 131.

    Jeffro

    Ok, so you’re the media…the Villagers…what’s the narrative now? Trump will buckle down, prep for debate #2, and “really come at Hillary hard with things she didn’t have to answer”? We’re supposed to think that will help folks picture him as our Commander in Chief? He’s the next Obama after Romney debate #1?

    I don’t think that whole metaphor thingy is gonna fly.

    Rs must be going nuts wondering whY DINT DONALD POUND BENGHAZI?!?!? Hel-LO, EMAILZ?!?

  134. 134.

    NotMax

    Other initial reaction is that what will stick with any of the non-nutzoid electorate (in their craw and in their consciousness) who watched or listened will be the stuff about his taxes.

    MSM will gloss it over because they’ve “already reported that.”

  139. 139.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SiubhanDuinne: One day, remind me to relate the story of the first time that Brian Williams told the story about being shot down in Iraq. I was sitting not fifteen feet from where he was standing and telling the story and it was within 3 weeks of the actual event. The reason he told the story was to suck up to the retired 4 star general who was the guest of honor at the banquet that Williams was the keynote speaker at. He even had a slide show of pictures.

  140. 140.

    Adam L Silverman

    @catclub: John Podesta just told Chris Matthews that he doesn’t think there will be any more debates and that he thinks that Trump’s campaign manager/professional staff are going to pull him out because they know he can’t do a town hall because he can’t answer the questions.

  142. 142.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jeffro:

    what’s the narrative now? Trump will buckle down, prep for debate #2, and “really come at Hillary hard with things she didn’t have to answer”?

    That’s what they’re saying on Fox, which the other people at the debate party insisted on switching to just to see what they’re saying.

  143. 143.

    NotMax

    Chris Christie: “If he doesn’t show up for the next two debates, Hillary would still not win.”

    Can’t see the technicians under the tabletop frantically spraying fire extinguishers at his trousers.

    Also too, “Fact checkers have an agenda.”

  146. 146.

    CaseyL

    @Adam L Silverman: Doesn’t that violate the Bigly Yuge StongGuy Bully thing his supporters love about him? How does he avoid the next 2 debates without revealing himself to be a weakling, a cuck, a fraud?

  147. 147.

    Citizen Scientist

    OT maybe: I’m in NH right now (Maine tomorrow for a few days) and it seems like Gov LePage’s comments about his binders of criminals/drug dealers that are mostly black or hispanic are a big story right now. The press got copies of his “binders” and noted that almost 70% of the photos in the binders “appeared to be white”. Go figure.

  155. 155.

    SFAW

    @Citizen Scientist:

    The press got copies of his “binders” and noted that almost 70% of the photos in the binders “appeared to be white”.

    They were all passing.

    Have fun in Maine (assuming it’s a pleasure trip, not business).

  156. 156.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Citizen Scientist: And the shooter in Houston today was wearing a vintage WW II German Wermacht uniform with NAZI arm band, had other NAZI paraphernalia in his car, and at his house.

  164. 164.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SFAW: No, but it took me, the grad director, and one of the other professors on my thesis committee to explain it to my Major Advisor and why it was an appropriate portion of a hybrid title. The whole thing was: “Its the End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fear, and Foreboding at the End of the Second Millennium.”

  167. 167.

    Eric S.

    Flipped on CNN just out of curiosity. The pundit desk is set up outside on a raised platform. There were a few people behind it holding up home made signs. Looked like a football pregame show. They aren’t even pretending to cover it as anything other than a sporting event.

  173. 173.

    mike in dc

    I can see Trump dropping back down into the 30s in polling and Clinton gaining a few points. She may pass 50 in a few polls.

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