By Nicole Hemmer, Assistant Professor, Miller Center, University of Virginia, and US Studies Centre, University of Sydney But as 2016 has been an unprecedented campaign, we'll have to wait to see whether the electorate agrees. Clinton's is more likely to expand her voter base, so it seems like the obvious winner. His supporters loved it.Ĭlinton and Trump took two different tacks in this debate. No nominee has ever – ever – vowed to use the office of the presidency to imprison his opponent. He shoe-horned aggressive rally lines into a roughly debate-like performance that was aimed squarely at his base.įor months his supporters have been chanting 'Lock her up!' Tonight Trump promised to do just that, in a breathtaking attack not just on Clinton but on the rule of law. He turned to the qualities that served him so well on competitive reality TV: ridicule, domination, shock. Her answers were aimed right at moderates and undecided voters. The town-hall style, based on daytime talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, favours empathy, warmth, and a personal touch.Īware of this, Clinton spoke directly to the audience members, asking them questions about their lives and ending her answers on an optimistic note. Hillary Clinton offered a traditional town-hall debate, modelled after her husband's performance in 1992. Clinton and Trump take different tacksįor audiences around the world there were two radically different debates, both taking place on the same stage. The Conversation's experts from Australia and the US were watching the debate. This became an early focus of the debate, while the two candidates later sparred over health care, tax reform and foreign relations. The town-hall-style clash came just days after a video of Trump making lewd remarks about the treatment of women was made public. Instead, he dismissed the controversy as trivial, drawing an ovation from the crowd and shoving the spotlight away from Clinton’s most profound political weakness.Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have met in the second of three presidential debates.

Sanders, Clinton’s top rival among declared candidates, was handed the opportunity by debate moderators to assail her over the email issue. “This is the kind of debate that helps build momentum.” “If you’re a Hillary supporter and you were worried for whatever reason, you should feel very good about yourself,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist who attended the televised debate in Las Vegas.

senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist. In doing so, she may have dampened calls for Biden to make a belated entrance into the race while also blunting the threat from insurgent candidate Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old U.S. REUTERS/Lucy NicholsonĪnalysts widely hailed Clinton, 67, as turning in a nimble, effective performance on Tuesday night, perhaps easing the fears of some Democrats fretting that the flap over her use of a private email server while in the Obama administration was torpedoing her candidacy for the November 2016 election. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gives a thumbs up to supporters at the end of the first official Democratic candidates debate of the 2016 presidential campaign in Las Vegas, Nevada October 13, 2015.

Hillary leaked nuclear time in debate