The first debate poll is out from NBC News and it looks like most viewers thought that Hillary performed better than Trump and won the debate:
NBC NEWS – A majority of likely voters (52 percent) who either watched the debate or said they followed debate coverage in the news said Hillary Clinton won the first presidential debate on Monday night, according to the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Debate Reaction Poll. Just 21 percent of likely voters thought Donald Trump won the debate, and 26 percent said neither candidate won the debate.
The poll was conducted online from September 26 immediately following the debate through September 27, 2016.
The first face-off of the 2016 presidential election cycle broke debate viewership records and about three-quarters of respondents said they watched the debate live. Though voters agreed Clinton was the clear victor, a majority of voters overall said their opinions of either candidate did not change as a result of the debate.
Clinton, however, seemed to boost her image among her own party as a result of her performance—50 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaners said their opinion of her changed for the better as a result of Monday night’s debate.
Trump did not have quite the same effect on his own party. About a quarter (26 percent) of likely Republican and Republican-leaning voters said their opinion of him changed for the better as a result of Monday’s debate. A large majority—68 percent—said their opinion of him did not change.
However you feel about it, it was only the first debate. If you remember, Romney romped Obama in 2012 in the first debate, and it didn’t really matter in the end as much as the 2nd and 3rd debates, where Obama became more aggressive and performed better.
So we’ll see how both candidates respond in the 2nd debate on October 9th.