Debate - Chloe Hain

Chloe Hain

Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have their fair share of weaknesses but also of strengths and this was evident in Monday night’s debate. In my opinion, it was clear that Hillary won the first presidential debate due to her preparedness and her ability to remain calm and collected. Donald Trump seemed to be not ready for the debate and frequently was avoiding questions throughout the night.

Mr. Trump’s main strengths in his campaign are his experience with media and his inexperience with politics. He is, in a way, the perfect candidate for today’s world. People are continuously questioning “the system” and our federal government, an outsider in the Oval Office is exactly what people want right now. They do not want a puppet of Wall Street such as Hillary is perceived to be. He is also adept at using social media to fire attacks at his opponents, whether or not he says disgusting things on the Internet, we have to admit that they are indeed effective. Some of his weaknesses both in the debate and in his campaign in general include avoiding questions and backing up his claims with false evidence or no evidence. In last night’s debate, Trump avoided answering countless questions. Lester Holt had to repeat at least 2 questions to Donald Trump last night and even that didn’t get him to answer. I think that Lester Holt needed to be more pushy. He also was giving little to no evidence to back up is odd claims about crime rates in America and he himself coined the term “semi-exact” while backing himself up.

Two of Hillary Clinton’s strengths in the debate were maintaining her composure and her overall readiness. She was able to remain silent while Trump was speaking and making his points while Trump was unable to return the favor. This just made her appear as the more mature candidate. She also had facts at the ready to back up her claims. She clearly had been preparing for this debate for a long, long time. One down side to her being so prepared was that she sounded scripted. It was so unnaturally good. She also is not the most trustworthy candidate due to her private email server scandal which was mentioned during the debate.