Winners & Losers

Winner Hillary Clinton: This was the Democratic nominee's best debate performance. She finally figured the right calibration of ignoring and engaging Trump. Given her considerable edge in the electoral map, Clinton didn't need a moment in this debate, she simply needed to survive. But she had a moment anyway — with a stirring answer in response to Trump's comments about women. Clinton, borrowing from Michelle Obama's speech on the same subject, was deeply human and relatable in that moment. Throughout the rest of the debate, she did what we know she knows how to do well: She deftly dropped a series of opposition research hits and attempts to goad