Hillary
Clinton was deemed the winner of Monday night's debate by 62 percent of
voters who tuned in to watch, while just 27 percent said they thought
Donald Trump had the better night, according to a CNN/ORC Poll of voters
who watched the debate.That drubbing is similar to Mitt Romney's dominant performance over President Barack Obama in the first 2012 presidential debate, CNN said in its report.
Voters who watched said Clinton expressed her views more clearly than Trump and had a better understanding of the issues by a margin of more than 2-to-1. Clinton also was seen as having done a better job addressing concerns voters might have about her potential presidency by a 57 percent to 35 percent margin, and as the stronger leader by a 56 percent to 39 percent margin.
CNN finds The gap was smaller on which candidate appeared more sincere and authentic, though still broke in Clinton's favor, with 53 percent saying she was more sincere vs. 40 percent who felt Trump did better on that score. Trump topped Clinton 56 percent to 33 percent as the debater who spent more time attacking their opponent.
Although the survey suggested debate watchers were more apt to describe themselves as Democrats than the overall pool of voters, even independents who watched deemed Clinton the winner, 54 percent vs. 33 percent who thought Trump did the best job in the debate.
And the survey suggests Clinton outperformed the expectations of those who watched. While pre-debate interviews indicated, these watchers expected Clinton to win by a 26-point margin that grew to 35 points in the post-debate survey, CNN said.
About half in the poll say the debate did not have an effect on their voting plans, 47 percent said it didn't make a difference, but those who say they were moved by it tilted in Clinton's direction, 34 percent said the debate made them more apt to vote for Clinton, 18 percent more likely to back Trump.
On the issues, voters who watched broadly say Clinton would do a better job handling foreign policy, 62 percent to 35 percent, and most think she would be the better candidate to handle terrorism, 54 percent to 43 percent who prefer Trump. But on the economy, the split is much closer, with 51 percent saying they favor Clinton's approach vs. 47 percent who prefer Trump.
Most debate watchers came away from Monday's face-off with doubts about Trump's ability to handle the presidency. Overall, 55 percent say they didn't think Trump would be able to handle the job of president, 43 percent said they thought he would. Among political independents who watched the debate, it's a near-even split, 50 percent say he can handle it, 49 percent that he can't, the CNN report said.
And voters who watched were more apt to see Trump's attacks on Clinton as unfair as they were to see her critiques that way. About two-thirds of debate viewers, 67 percent, said Clinton's critiques of Trump were fair, while just 51 percent said the same of Trump.
Assessments of Trump's attacks on Clinton were sharply split by gender, with 58 percent of men seeing them as fair compared with 44 percent of women who watched on Monday. There was almost no gender divide in perceptions of whether Clinton's attacks were fair.
The CNN/ORC post-debate poll includes interviews with 521 registered voters who watched the September 26 debate. Results among debate-watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. Respondents were originally interviewed as part of a September 23-25 telephone survey of a random sample of Americans, and indicated they planned to watch the debate and would be willing to be re-interviewed when it was over.
