Judging the debate: a point by point analysis

[Final-Fan]

ICStats said:

Clinton came out far ahead, and she knew it. She was comfortably laughing at Trump towards the end of the debate.

EDIT: I'm reading through the OP's comments.

On Question 4 the OP's judgement is that they candidates were about even.  The question was about how to ease racial tensions, and Trump's answer promoting Stop-And-Frisk is quite the opposite.  This is one of the answers that makes Trump sound like he could run a dangerous and an Un-American regime.

The judgment wasn't always about whether the actual policies were objectively better for the country.  That's a debate on its own.  But a lot of the judgment was in many cases about whether a candidate was able to demolish another candidate's argument.  For instance, I gave Trump the win on the first question because he was able to force Clinton into an awkward position regarding Obama's support of the TPP.  Obama's support of the TPP is not directly relevant to Clinton's own policy platform, so strictly speaking it would have little logical place in deciding between the two candidates compared to Clinton's own position on it, but in the context of the debate Trump "won" that part of the debate (IMO).

Having said that, reality is obviously also a factor.  That's why the moderator had to step in on Trump so often.