| Hillary Clinton has a post-debate bounce, but can she hold it? | It was the debate that stopped a nation.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton battled it out for the hearts and minds of Americans in Long Island on Monday night at the first Presidential debate.
More than 80 million watched on TV, millions more online, in America and across the world.
Here's what former house speaker and Trump supporter Newt Gingrich tweeted ahead of the big event.
Most informative.
So who won?
Hillary Clinton was the victor according to the pundits, the betting markets, the focus groups and early post debate polls.
There's no doubt she got under Donald Trump's skin a few times and he responded by talking over her and the moderator, but he also rambled, reverted to property developer speak and was a little, shall we say, stream of consciousness in his answers.
Consider this answer to a question about cyber security:
"As far as the cyber, I agree to parts of what Secretary Clinton said. We should be better than anybody else, and perhaps we're not. I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She's saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don't — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK? So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is — it is a huge problem. I have a son. He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly doable. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing. But that's true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better… and certainly cyber is one of them."
But Donald Trump rarely speaks in tidy language, and his performance won't alienate his existing supporters.
In fact many of them think he won the day.
He's been touting online polls (which are notoriously unreliable and can be easily manipulated) many of which went in his favour.
Hillary Clinton may have 'won' but her performance also played to the converted.
Critics say she came across as 'canned' and over rehearsed.
She wasn't apologising:
"I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And, yes, I did. You know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And I think that's a good thing," she said.
She also lost her cool a couple of times at one point saying "yeah, say more crazy things" to her opponent, which won't play well with those who think she's dismissive and disconnected from average people, many of whom are Trump supporters.
The all important polls gave her a bounce nevertheless. Let's see if she holds it.
HE SAID
"I think my strongest asset by far is my temperament. I have a winning temperament,"
SHE SAID
"This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs..."
A TALE OF TWO WOMEN
Just on that, the main post debate story revolved around former Miss Universe Alicia Machado who alleges that she was badly treated by Donald Trump when he owned the pageant.
Her story went international when Hillary Clinton mentioned her on Monday night, calling her opponent out for describing the former contestant as 'Miss Piggy'.
Machado has been doing the rounds of the cable TVs ever since, also tweeting her support for Mrs Clinton.
Meanwhile before the debate Donald Trump tweeted that he may seat former lover of Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers in the front row in response to the attendance of outspoken billionaire and Trump critic Mark Cuban
She didn't attend.
Donald Trump said after the debate that he didn't raise Mr Clinton's infidelities because he didn't want to embarrass the Clinton's daughter Chelsea, who was in the room.
I spoke with Donald Trump Jr after the debate in Long Island and he told me his father had shown great restraint.
Gloves may be off on that next time around.
COMEDY CORNER
Speaking of which the actors' collective has decided to take on Donald Trump with a series of ads and clips encouraging Americans to enrol to vote and criticising his candidacy.
This tongue in cheek scene from the cast of Will and Grace is pretty cutting.
WHERE'S BERNIE?
He's back! Bernie joined Hillary in New Hampshire on Wednesday to court millennial voters.
GARY DOESN'T KNOW
The former Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson has once again torpedoed his credibility with another blunder on foreign policy.
It comes just a couple of weeks after the Libertarian candidate was caught out for failing to recognize the epicentre of the world's refugee crisis, Aleppo.
His latest blunder? The inability to name one other world leader.
From any country. Anywhere. At all.
Facepalm.
GAME TIME
Donald Trump now has his own video game.
Seriously.
New Zealand developers have created, "Jrump" the premise of which is that "Donald Jrump has destroyed earth and there is hell toupee.
With his work now done, draw walls, escape politicians and make the galaxy great again".
One for the kids' virtual Christmas stocking?
T-SHIRT TIME
Or, here's another gift option.
Political reporter for The Guardian, Ben Jacobs, is at it again highlighting some of the interesting and sometimes downright offensive t-shirts on offer at Trump events:
BY THE NUMBERS
60 per cent - That's how much more post-debate Internet search interest there was for Hillary Clinton.
It was just the fifth time in 2016 that the former Secretary of State was more searched online than Donald Trump, according to Google.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Supporters turning their backs on their candidate used to be perceived as a bad thing.
In 2016, it takes on a whole other meaning.
Check out this shot of Clinton supporters taking selfies with their candidate on stage:
GIF OF THE WEEK
The Hillary shimmy...
THE BOSS
Still trying to work out who Donald Trump supporters are? Bruce Springsteen's music holds the answer. No, seriously.
A NATION PREPARES
Around the country – the prospects of a Donald Trump administration are slowly sinking in.
In Illinois, real estate agents are taking advantage of those planning to flee the country in the event of a Trump Administration:
Meanwhile, in California, the Latina community is so unnerved they're looking for a divine intervention.
Even household pets have the jitters.
AND FINALLY - TV REMINDER
Set the DVR for Saturday night, people.
The crew from Saturday Night Live is taking on the debate and Alec Baldwin is playing the role of Donald Trump.
So that was quite a week.
Again.
Still.
Keep an eye out for the two silver haired white men, Mike Pence and Tim Kaine who will debate each other on the VP stage in Virginia next week.
In the meantime I'll be heading off to the Mid West ahead of the second debate.
Missouri, the "Show Me State" is known for simple common sense.
The second debate will be run town hall style so expect some pretty direct questions from the locals on October the 9th. |  | | | About this email You received this email because you are subscribed to ABC News email alerts. This message was sent to you at bsamad2007.adnan@blogger.com. Please add newslists@your.abc.net.au to your email address book to see images by default and stop the email being treated as spam. This email address is not monitored - Please don't reply to this email. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. Add or remove topics | Unsubscribe | Contact Us |
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