In the first segment of the debate, Hillary Clinton started out on the defensive on trade, while Donald Trump did a pretty good job of making his case against free trade deals, NAFTA and the like (unsupported by most of the facts though that case may be). Trump also was able to tie that case to an attack on Hillary as a career politician responsible for many of our problems and unable to take them on with new policies. This is an effective attack in a political environment where people think the nation is on the wrong track.
But then, in the second segment of the debate, the two candidates got into a slugfest, and it turned out Hillary is a better slugger than Donald. She went on the offensive on Trump’s tax returns. Donald didn’t do well in response. And Trump was basically on the defensive, or at best holding his own, the rest of the night. Time after time, Trump spent time defending aspects of his career and some of his statements instead of prosecuting the case for change.
