The Great 2016 Debate Is Over — But the Campaign Goes On

As the days dwindled down to the first of the 90-minute presidential election campaign debates between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, a crescendo of publicity, prediction and built-up tension was coming to a head.

Monday was fast approaching.

It would be the biggest debate ever, even bigger than the legendary Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960, in which a six-o’clock shadow and a little Nixonian sweat made all the difference. It would be bigger than the Reagan-Carter debate when Reagan said, “There you go again.” It would be bigger than the first Romney-Obama debate, in which a laid-back Obama was steamrollered by Romney.

It would be so big that it could be the key moment of the 2016 campaign, from which one candidate might never recover and another might roll on to victory in the fall — as if there were not two more (probably) debates, plus another between the two running mates, whose names once again escaped many.

Monday’s debate, to use candidate Trump’s favorite word, would be “huuuge.”

It was going to be the biggest. All the campaign strategists, all the folks drawing up maps and carving up districts for a year now, all the media types young and old, the Twitterers, the Instagrammists, the Facebookers, all the people who had predicted the outcome of all the primaries (and had been consistently wrong), bravely predicted who had to win, how they would or should do it, what they must do and must not, who they had to persuade.

Hillary Clinton, who had been having a somewhat rough go of it lately, stopped campaigning and started preparing. Trump was still the same dervish devil, running from rally to rally, commenting on Charlotte, calling for stop-and-frisks, getting into trouble in his inimitable way, threatening to bring Gennifer Flowers to the debate.

The country was getting nervous. People booked watch parties and asked each other if they’d watch the debate, or possibly a CSI Miami rerun (as if). The media was agog. Which Donald Trump was going to show up: the charmer, as he was described by one of his sons, or the god-only-knows-what-he’ll-say guy? Would Hillary soften up, overtalk, be deplorable?

It was enough to keep you up nights, make you go to church, chew your nails, start smoking again or render you incapable of finishing a game of Spider Solitaire. The buildup was taking on apocalyptic aspects: The Most Important Debate Ever, The Most Critical Point of the Campaign. A hundred million were expected to watch, more than the “M.A.S.H.” season finale, right up there with the Super Bowl.

So. As we woke up Tuesday morning, the two squirrels outside in the yard were still eating, the Post landed on the stairs, trees were still standing and a millennial jogged down the sidewalk. We had survived the Great Debate of 2016.

How great was it?

Maybe not sooo great. Did it get big ratings? No question. Did we learn something new? Not so much. Were undecided voters persuaded? Maybe not so much either, if some college types who professed to be disappointed are any clue, but those who were persuaded probably leaned in Clinton’s direction.

Was there eloquence, revelation, inspiration, a plan to save the world and the American economy and find a place to put all the Syrian refugees? Nope. A plan to stop another impending government shutdown? Nope. A new, fresh or even old immigration plan? Didn’t come up, which was, well, a little shocking, since Trump’s wall and immigrant rant jump-started him toward the GOP presidential nomination. Did someone say “deplorable”? Actually, no.

Which Trump showed up?

Well, all of them, and there are at least three. A veritable Sybil-like little army was onstage. There was the slightly snarky charmer: “In all fairness to Secretary Clinton — Yes? Is that okay? Good, I want you to be very happy. It’s very important to me.” There was the early plan presenter. He had a plan to stop the U.S. from losing to China in business, from U.S. businesses running off to Mexico.

There was the counter-puncher — “Wrong, wrong” — and there was the double-down-even-if-everyone-knows-you’re-wrong guy: on opposition to Iraq, on taxes, on birthers and so on. There was the can’t-help-myself meddler, time-hogger, interrupter, interrupting not only Clinton but the luckless Lester Holt, who had the thankless task of moderating an hour and a half of bickering and battling between two candidates hell-bent on a punch-out.

Clinton wonked, but also stabbed and attacked and seemed stable, strong and happy doing it. She smiled a lot, waffled a little (on trade) and never wavered, right to the bitter end.

It’s probably fair to say that Clinton, with her aggressive attacks, had the better of the night, and probably stopped the bleeding that had brought the national polls and many critical state polls to a statistical tie.

She probably didn’t generate much traction in the warmth factor, but Trump, as the evening progressed like a tractor pull, wobbled after a fairly clean start. He kept returning to the Chinese, to jobs, to regulations, to the claim that he had practically done the nation a service by making Obama come up with his birth certificate. He offered no good explanations for not having shared his tax returns. He offered no plan for stopping ISIS or anything else. He jabbed at Clinton for not mentioning the phrase “law and order.”

Overall, it was a messy affair, puzzling media and audiences alike. The Twitter poll showed a Trump win, but most folks thought Clinton came out ahead.

In the end, it was Trump — who had and again accused Clinton of not having the stamina (as well as the face) for the job — who appeared to be running out of ideas, out of breath and out of steam. The self-described fantastically healthy Trump even showed signs of a cold.

Now, at least, as we poke over the results endlessly for the rest of the week, like Roman high priests weighing the contents of the entrails of a chicken, while Trump ominously promised to get tough and even rough moving on, we can think about other things.

After all, it will soon be October. The Nats in the playoffs. The leaves. Halloween.

On the other hand, it will soon be October — and the next debate is Oct. 9.