Why do they keep saying that Trump had a strong start last night on teevee?

[onehandle]

He was off the rails from his first response.

WTF?

[annabanana]

1. yeah.. but he REALLY

pissed himself later on..

(everything's relative)

[MattP]

2. What backwoods do they drag these focus groups from?

[Funtatlaguy]

12. Undecideds? Still? After a year and a half

Of all of this....with these two completely different choices....
Just think how clueless or out of touch you would have to be.

[narnian60]

17. I know, I know!

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. It's more false equivalency. He was a jerk

The whole time, he didn't "win" anything he spouted nothing but his old stump speech shit for the first 1/2 hour.

[Blue Idaho]

4. By strong start they meant speeding is gord off.

He overshot his cocaine mark by a mile.

[grossproffit]

5. His showing up is considered a strong start. He's being graded as a child, not a man.

[romana]

6. People didn't listen

I've seen that, and heard it from colleagues who are less interested in politics. They felt he was much better at the beginning, so I asked them what he said that was so effective. The answer was basically "He talked about the economy," but when I pressed them for more details on what his plans are, nobody could answer.

Basically, they responded to the fact that he validates their sense that the economy is bad, and that's what resonates for them. If you look at the actual words he said, he offers very little in terms of plans, and talks a lot about how the economy is bad and current leadership on the economy is bad.

His stance on trade definitely hits its mark with lots of people. Everyone has this vague sense that trade is bad for this country. Clinton's message about how we have to trade with the world is the truth, but it's a truth people don't want to hear. They just want their fear of trade's impact on the economy validated. And that's what Trump does.

[chillfactor]

7. about the first 15 minutes...

t'rump did fine....the trade talk....after that it was all downhill for t'rump.

[doc03]

11. Guess what that 15 minutes is what Chuck Todd is talking about nt

[LisaM]

8. Yeah, you got me.

I'm on the West Coast, so I didn't see the beginning live. I watched it on the repeat, expecting that he would seem at least functionally normal, but he didn't.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. Only when compared to the trainwreck mess that it was by the end.

But he never really had a handle on anything from the beginning.

[C_U_L8R]

10. His first sentence had a subject and a predicate.

It was all word salad from there.
Donnie got a star for participating.

[MoonRiver]

13. He was able to coherently string a few sentences together.

That didn't last long!

[Madam45for2923]

14. Remember there was a low bar for him to begin with!

[Doreen]

15. I did not see it at all.

Maybe he did OK the first 10 minutes but Strong is the wrong word. OK and for no more than 10 minutes and that is being generous.

[tetedur]

16. If Trump showed up with his shoes on the wrong feet, they'd praise his ability to still walk.

They wouldn't ask the question why his shoes were on the wrong feet.

[JoePhilly]

18. He was sniffing and twitching during Hillary's first question.

The fools are DESPERATE to find some positive in his mess.

If this was a 3 round fight (30 minute rounds) ...

Round 1: Trump managed to not get knocked out the first 20 minutes of Round 1 ... but in the last 10 minutes of Round 1, he was starting to stagger.

Round 2: Hillary lands body blow after body blow. Trump can't hit her, and struggles to protect himself. But he makes it to round 3.

Round 3: Hillary treats Trump like a cat toy. She jabs, jabs, jabs, until he is a babbling idiot. Then in the last 10 minutes, she pounds him into a wet puddle.

She leaves the ring victorious, Trump wanders the ring lost and confused.

[LeftRant]

19. Strong (for Trump) = Extra Mouthy

[ladym55]

20. Supposedly a focus group of "undecideds" scored Trump higher in the first 1/2 hour

After that, the scores were all Hillary. Keith Olbermann discussed this on a live Facebook post for GQ today, but I can't find a link.

[DarthDem]

21. Because It's The Best They've Got for False Equivalence

It's really the only thing they can say to feed the FE troll.