The Morning Headlines Analyze The First Debate – Video and Polls

There were a couple of not-so-very-subtle signals here inside of Hofstra University that Donald Trump lost Monday night’s highly-anticipated debate against Hillary Clinton, and badly.

The first was the audible sound of groaning by some of his supporters (picked up by my attentive colleague Steve Shepard) inside the debate hall as Trump meandered self-defensively through a succession of answers against a very focused, very energized and very well-rehearsed Hillary Clinton.

In a relentlessly antagonistic debate, Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clintonclashed over trade, the Iraq war, his refusal to release his tax returns and her use of a private email server, with Mr. Trump frequently showing impatience and political inexperience as Mrs. Clinton pushed him to defend his past denigration of women and President Obama.

Mr. Trump repeatedly interrupted Mrs. Clinton and at times talked over her throughout the 90-minute debate, making slashing attacks that surely pleased his Republican base but may have been off-putting to women and undecided voters. He also left unchallenged her assertion that he paid no federal taxes for years.

For her part, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly chided Mr. Trump for bungling his facts while accusing him of hiding information about his debts to Wall Street and foreign banks.

Donald Trump was trying very hard to be on his best behavior.

In the opening minutes of the first presidential debate Monday night, the Republican nominee began an answer by saying, “In all fairness to Secretary Clinton” — then turned to his opponent with exaggerated cordiality. “Yes? Is that okay? Good. I want you to be very happy. It’s very important to me.”

But even Trump’s best behavior was not quite good enough. Within minutes, he was hectoring and interrupting Clinton when she spoke, glowering, pursing his lips, shaking his head and interjecting one-word retorts.

“Wrong!” he told Clinton.

“Wrong!” he told the moderator, NBC’s Lester Holt.

This first presidential debate was Hillary’s moment. She owned Donald Trump like a Girl Boss. And she demonstrated the benefits of good preparation. In fact, one of her greatest moments of the night was when she turned to Trump and said “I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. Well I did. Just like I have prepared to be President.”

That was a drop-the-mic moment. But importantly it taught an important lesson for all of America’s – and the world’s — sons and daughters: that these moments are to be taken seriously, that one should prepare for the tough challenges in life, and that hard work, perseverance, civility and dedication are always going to win over braggadocio, rudeness, brashness and outright lying.