I think that is completely wrong. She didn't lose because of the debates. I think there were many factors in her loss. I think the biggest one is that she made that fateful decision to use a private e mail server. That led to her being under FBI investigation through much of the campaign and having Comey drop that bomb shortly before the election. There were also Russian efforts to suppress voting for her among groups that have voted Democrat in recent history.CID1990 wrote:She didn’t win the debates, JohnJohnStOnge wrote:
Well, every scientific poll I'm aware of indicated that the majority of the People who watched each debate thought Clinton won. And that's where the winning and losing is in those political "debates."
I'm not the only one that says that. Here's one example of an article pointing it out:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/hilla ... 2016-10-20
As for really winning on substance, I think she did that too. Trump is a buffoon. She was far more knowledgeable than him and it showed.
She would have done better in the general ... and she might well have won the election if she had decided not to participate in any debates with Trump, and had instead spent that time campaigning in the rust belt.
Saying she won the debates is an exercise in idiocy because there is no real quantitative way to say it... it is based purely on opinions - you own as well as others.
Any serious candidate is a debate loser the moment they step on stage with Trump - for precisely the reasons you list. He isn’t just a buffoon. He makes buffoons out of anyone debating him (see Marco Rubio). That is particularly easy to do with someone who already has a mountain of ethical and dishonest baggage trailing behind her.
When I say that the majority of people who watched each debate thought she won that is not...well..debatable. That's what happened. And Trump did not make a Buffoon out of Clinton. Anyway, in political terms, if the majority of people who watched a debate think Clinton won the debate she won the debate. And that's what happened each time.
As of the day after the third debate Clinton was up on Trump by 6 percentage points in the RCP average of polls. Comey came out with his last minute thing and the gap narrowed to 1.9 percentage points on November 2. Comey said "all clear" very late and the gap increased to 3.3 on the day prior to election day. But the damage was done.
I think it very likely that if the election had been held on the day following the date of the last debate Clinton would've won easily. Yes, I am talking about overall popular vote and not the electoral college. But it is clear that Clinton was in a lot better position immediately following the debates than she was after Comey did his thing late.









