Trump-Clinton, the debates

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The second debate was lost by the Republican Party, according to the Weekly Standard (which used to be the Republican publication par excellence..) He did just enough not to be kicked out as a candidate by the top of the party, but not good enough to have any realistic chance of winning the election.

There is one important sense in which Donald Trump "won" the debate on Sunday night: He did not implode. He wasn't "good," or attractive, or knowledgeable. He was coarse and whiny and unpleasant. He lied constantly. And he became the first presidential candidate in the history of our Republic to promise that if elected he would attempt to have his opponent face criminal prosecution. Actually, he went a bit further than that, telling Clinton that if he is president, "You'd be in jail." Which, by the by, should terrify you and be disqualifying all on its own.

But Trump didn't have a psychotic break onstage. And clearing that bar might be enough to keep Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, and Reince Priebus from publicly disavowing his candidacy this week. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what a win looks like for Trump these days. We stand at a moment in history where dozens of Republican representatives, senators, and governors have not only publicly vowed not to vote for the Republican nominee but have called on him to vacate the nomination. Where four weeks before Election Day, one-in-four Republican voters want their nominee to drop out of the race. (And that number is almost certain to rise over the next week.)

The Debate's Biggest Loser Was the GOP | The Weekly Standard