Hill crowned debate champ

Viewers tell polls Clinton won in a walk

Hillary Clinton crushed Donald Trump in their first presidential debate, according to polls released on Wednesday.

A joint survey by Web sites Politico and Morning Consult — conducted Monday night and Tuesday — found that 49 percent of likely voters believe Clinton won Monday night’s showdown, while 26 percent thought Trump was the victor.

The widely anticipated confrontation proved a hit with the 1,253 voters surveyed.

Seventy-two percent said they tuned in to the debate, and 9 percent said it changed their minds.

And , it appeared the 95-minute slugfest gave Clinton a bump.

In a four-way race that includes Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Clinton now leads Trump, 41 percent to 38 percent. Before the debate, he was ahead by 1 point.

When Johnson and Stein were excluded from the survey, Clinton led Trump, 45 percent to 41 percent.

“It’s a clear victory for Clinton, and it comes as both national and state polls have tightened over the past several weeks. She is off to a good start on the debate front,” Cameron Easley wrote on Morning Consult’s Web site.

“But . . . 9 percent of voters said the debate changed their minds about who they will vote for, while about eight out of 10 said it wouldn’t matter.”

Meanwhile, in a poll from Echelon Insights, 58 percent of registered voters who watched the en- tire debate thought Clinton had won, while just 26 percent believed Trump came out on top.

Echelon’s data also showed Clinton leading Trump by 5 points in a head-to-head race. Clinton was ahead, 47 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters.

Debate moderator Lester Holt, who was attacked by Trump supporters as unfair to their candidate, was viewed as impartial by 42 percent of voters, according to the Politico-Morning Consult poll. But 27 percent thought he was more favorable to Clinton and just 2 percent said the NBC News anchor was more favorable to Trump. The other 28 percent had no opinion.

Another poll from NBC News/ Survey Monkey showed that 52 percent of those who either watched or paid attention to the debate thought that Clinton won, while just 21 percent thought that Trump won.

Twenty-six percent said neither candidate came out on top.

The numbers don’t add up to 100 percent because of rounding.