Our View: Clinton takes down a national bully

He was better television. She was better prepared.

As she spoke, he bobbed with arched eyes and deep resentment.

As he spoke, she stood with tranquil calm.

Donald Trump was loud and pushy; irreverent and ... interesting.

Hillary Clinton was steady and unbowed, sturdy but ... staid.

If she awkwardly reached at times for the right word, he unabashedly bleated out the wrong one.

Trump vs. everyone, even his friends

Trump was the untamed wind Monday at the first presidential debate, striking out not just against Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, but all of political Washington.

In the foreign policy section of the debate, where his inexperience waived like a felt pennant, he declared he had the support of the military brass — “I’ll take the generals any day over the political hacks that I see that have led our country so brilliantly over the last 10 years with their knowledge.”

That comment didn’t just snare the Obama’s and their former secretary of State, it also caught the last two years of George W. Bush. A fellow Republican.

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Trump railed against the Iraq War that Bush started and Clinton supported, and declared against overwhelming evidence to the contrary that he opposed it.

In a much anticipated presidential debate watched on TV and Internet by an estimated 100 million Americans, Trump brought his ratings gold — his utter disdain for political decorum that makes him irresistible to so many Americans.

Clinton's worst (then best) moments

His best moments came at the start of the debate when he knocked Clinton back with assertions that she and her Democratic colleagues have been giving the country away with mindless trade deals and the granddaddy of all lousy deals — NAFTA.

When Clinton retorted weakly by roughing out her own economic plan, he pounced, “You’ve been doing this for 30 years. Why are you just now thinking of solutions?”

That brought Clinton’s worst moment when she pulled the Bill card. “I think my husband did a pretty good job.”

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MONTINI:If truth mattered, Clinton defeated Trump

For another Democrat, it might have been effective. For the first woman on center stage of American presidential politics it exuded weakness.

But if Clinton slipped there, she was an oak the remainder of the debate, not flinching when Trump cut loose with his now famous insults and non sequiturs. After more than an hour of Trump school-boy put-downs, Clinton finally reacted with a mischievous smile — “Whew, OK!”

The audience roared.

When Trump nattered on about making our NATO allies pay for their protection under the American nuclear umbrella, Clinton parried with a weighty resolve. “Words matter when you run for president,” she said. “Let me assure our allies ... we have mutual defense treaties and we will honor them.”

Clinton's TKO: 'Talk to me about stamina'

Trump still got some powerful digs in.

When she said her private email server “was a mistake.” He said, “It was more than a mistake.”

She accused him of “birther” bigotry, of starting his “political activity on this racist lie that our first African-American president was not really an American citizen.”

He shot back that, au contraire, the Clinton campaign of 2008 “treated (Obama) with terrible disrespect,” trotting out some of the very same doubts about his authenticity.

MORE:Fact-checking the first debate

The best moment of the night, however, belonged to her. When Trump tried to play on Clinton’s health setbacks and declared she lacks “the stamina” to be president, she struck back. “As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world, or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.”

She won the loudest applause of the night. It was a TKO.

Late in the debate when Clinton said, “Stand up to bullies whether they are abroad or at home” no one doubted who she was referring to “at home.”

Or that she had stood up to him.

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