Keller @ Large: Debate Excited Clinton, Trump Bases, But Didn't Expand Them
BOSTON (CBS) - Did you stay up late and watch the debate Monday night?
Watch: First Presidential Debate
If not, I urge you to take the time to view it, because we may never see another contrast in style and content as stark as the one Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presented.
For starters, if these two seemed to be talking past each other on major policy issues, it's no wonder.
He believes in supply-side tax cuts to spur job growth and trade protectionism to keep jobs here. She supports tax hikes on the wealthy to pay for job-creating infrastructure and free trade to cut prices for consumers.
On crime, he talks about backing cops and getting tough, she talks about rights and building trust. She casts herself as the one who can work with the political establishment; he wants to fire it.
And when it comes to presentation and style, the contrast is even more stark.
Clinton was more consistently calm and even-tempered, and wants to impress you with her resume. At times, she was too calm, failing to exploit opportunities to stick it to him.
Trump was louder and more outraged, qualities that helped win him the nomination. He asks voters to take a leap of faith, that a vehicle for their anger and frustration might also become a great leader.
She embraces specifics and seems dismayed by his heated rhetoric; he shuns the details for the most part, and doesn't hide his contempt for her.
Sometimes debates can change the course of a race. My guess is that this one solidified it, exciting each candidate's base without necessarily expanding it.
But only time, and the vote itself, will tell.
Meanwhile, we have two more of these to go.