Hillary was on the defensive for much of it. Her email explanations were insipid and unconvincing, as always. But there is no way for her to break out of the box on this issue because she can’t just tell the truth — i.e., she wanted to keep her records from public view in violation of the rules. She didn’t help herself when she tried to stop Matt Lauer from getting her to move on from one question — there’s a graceful way to do that and she didn’t manage it. Her shots at Trump felt forced, and especially at the end, rushed. It was quite a brittle performance for someone who has been doing this for so long. She always has a lot of explaining to do and doesn’t do it particularly well.

Trump has to be graded on two metrics. One: Did he seem plausible to the average viewer? Probably yes. He has an executive bearing and if you don’t care too much about the details of any of this stuff, a lot of what he says will sound like common sense. And every day when he can seem just a little more plausible as commander-in-chief is a good day for him. But on the substance he combined an obvious lack of knowledge of basic matters with his usual obsessions, from stealing Iraq’s oil to putting the best possible spin on Vladimir Putin. He was particularly weak and hazy on the question of whether he has a secret anti-ISIS plan or is waiting to figure it after he is elected. His team should be trying desperately to get him to do some more serious debate prep.