Trump and Clinton Meet in Final Presidential Debate

 Contentious Showdown Does Not Appear to Alter Trajectory of Race
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Third presidential debate
Date: Wed. Oct. 19, 2016 at UNLV in Las Vegas, NV.

Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern time without commercial breaks.

Moderator: Chris Wallace, Anchor, Fox News Sunday

Format:
The debate will be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on major topics to be selected by the moderator.

Subject to possible changes because of news developments, the topics for the October 19 debate are as follows, not necessarily to be brought up in this order:

Debt and entitlements
Immigration
Economy
Supreme Court
Foreign hot spots
Fitness to be President

The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. Candidates will then have an opportunity to respond to each other. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topic.

At the end moderate Chris Wallace added "a new mini-segment, one-minute closing statements."

Source: CPD


Expectations
This debate occured at a time when Donald Trump has endured an extraordinarily rough stretch over the preceeding three to four weeks, and many pundits and observers were predicting a blowout win for Hillary Clinton.  For Trump the debate represented one last chance to reverse that dynamic.

The two candidates took decidedly different approaches in the days leading up to the debate.  Trump kept up a busy schedule of rallies, while Clinton maintained a low profile.

Trump's Refusal
Trump started out unusually quiet and measured, but it did not last.  His refusal to commit to accepting the election outcome dominated the news coming out of this debate. 

Trump also let fly a couple of lines which drew offense.  First he mentioned "bad hombres." Toward the close of the debate when Clinton was responding to a question on Social Security, she stated, "My Social Security payroll contribution will go up, as will Donald's, assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it..." Trump let fly with one of his insults.  "Such a nasty woman," Trump said.

Sequence: Supreme Court - Immigration - The Economy - Fitness to be President - Foreign Hot Spots - National Debt