One debate won’t settle everything, but one candidate was a clear winner of the first debate.

When the dust settled on 90 minutes of spirited debate, nearly all of the political pundits, experts and news outlets said that Secretary Hillary Clinton had bested businessman Donald Trump.  

TV networks NBC and CNN both determined Clinton was the winner. Both traditional print news  organizations The New York Times and The Washington Post as well as online sources Politico and Five Thirty Eight declared Clinton the winner. Six foreign news networks—UK based BBC, The Telegraph, and The Guardian, German Deutsche Welle, Japan Times, and even Russian state-owned Russia 24—all agreed that Clinton was the winner.  The Wall Street Journal was more neutral, but even Fox News called the debate for Clinton. Poynter was an outlier as it said debate moderator Lester Holt was the winner.  

The only news outlet to suggest Trump was a clear winner of the debate was Breitbart.  Breitbart even touted Trump’s success in its own online poll.  However, doubts were cast on the accuracy of the poll by The Daily Beast’s Ben Collins.  Collins referenced a tweet that noted a poll conducted by Time and similar to that by Breitbart had been “gamed.”

The debate, hosted by Hofstra University, was divided into three categories: “America’s Direction, Achieving Prosperity, and Securing America.” Candidates were given two minutes each to answer a question, then given the remainder of the time to respond to each other. The debate lasted just over an hour and a half and was uninterrupted by commercials.

NBC News’ Lester Holt, the debate’s moderator, gave the candidates and the audience a rule of “no interruptions.”  However, there were several.  According to Senior Demographer at Pew Research Conrad Hackett, Clinton was interrupted by Trump 51 times.  While Clinton interrupted Trump just 17 times.   Additionally the studio audience also applauded for each of the candidates at several points.

Trump came across vague and unfocused according to some analysts.  According to an article from University of Birmingham’s Adam Quinn for The Conversation, said Trump became rattled.

“First [Trump] was knocked off balance by a simple recitation of the facts of his own past,” Quinn wrote, “then he was provoked into a total loss of composure on live TV while applying for a job in which calm judgement is the absolute prerequisite.”

Despite his faults, Trump did score some points.  Several times Trump touted his business acumen as evidence of his qualification for the presidency.  Of his new hotel in Washington, D.C. in the Old Post Office Trump said “[It is] under budget, ahead of schedule, [saving] tremendous money, I’m a year ahead of schedule. And that is what this country should be doing.”

Clinton was able to score points of her own.  Doyle McMannus writing for the LA Times noted, “Not a good sign when a candidate has to assert his temperament is steady. Foreign policy was always going to be Clinton’s strong point in a debate, and it was tonight.”

Clinton’s debate preparation was well documented as was Trump’s approach.  NBC’s Meet the Press Chuck Todd noted after the debate, “Hillary Clinton was at times, even, you could argue, overprepared.”  Fortune’s Alex Altman and Phillip Elliot described Clinton as, “A veteran debater, Clinton is known for preparation, precision and a firm grasp of policy.”

By contrast Trump prefered a less traditional approach to preparation.   The New York Times reported that “Trump has paid only cursory attention to briefing materials. He has refused to use lecterns in mock debate sessions despite the urging of his advisers. He prefers spitballing ideas with his team rather than honing them into crisp, two-minute answers.”

Ultimately Clinton’s preparation overcame Trump’s bravado in the debate.  Kathleen Decker wrote for the LA Times, “At one point, Donald Trump gently mocked Hillary Clinton for staying home during the run-up to the debate. The results showed why she did.”

The Republican nominee missed multiple opportunities to bash Clinton, according to some Republicans on Capitol Hill.  Trump did not attack Clinton on questions about The Clinton Foundation and Benghazi. He also did not capitalize on questions about her email server or her change in views on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“I wish Trump would’ve hit some of the softballs a little harder,” said Republican Representative Dave Brat of Virginia to ABC News.

Republican Bill Flores of Texas told Politico “[Trump] made some good points, but he wasn’t as consistent as he could be.”

The next debate will be Sunday, October 9, 2016.  The debate will be moderated by Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and Co-Anchor of This Week on ABC, and Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor.