In the debate, Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of living in his own reality. Since then, Trump seemed to be out to prove her right, insisting that he'd won the debate by a landslide. His evidence? Online polls where it's easy for one person to vote thousands of times. In all the polls conducted the way real polls work, Clinton came out on top by a wide margin.
His supporters all know this. No way would any of them say Hillary had won if the online polls said so and the real polls did not. But just as Trump and his surrogates can deny every fact and stat that indicate good news for the current economy, they can deny any poll that doesn't show them winning. Other politicians might say, "Okay, she did well but look how Mitt Romney did in his first debate against Barack Obama and then look who won the next two and the election!" Not these folks.
The polls for the general election may not yet show a huge bump for her but they do indicate movement in her direction. Keep in mind that if you're looking at an aggregator like Nate Silver's, it takes a few days for changes in polls to register on an aggregator. And some of those polls are rolling polls where, for example, each day they survey one-seventh of their sample. So what happened last Monday will not be fully reflected in the poll until next Monday.
The vice-presidential debate will be October 4. No one cares.
The next presidential debate is October 9. This one will be "town hall" format with the candidates talking directly to audience questioners…a format which does not favor Mr. Trump. Ms. Clinton's husband was the master of this format, talking to people instead of at them. Also, one of the moderators is Anderson Cooper, who Trump has said is unfit for the position or something like that. This oughta be interesting.
The word today is that Trump's surrogates are being sent out to hit Hillary on two fronts: Bill's infidelity and sleazy business dealings by the Clinton Foundation. Given Donald's history with women and the flow of scandals coming out of the Trump Foundation and Trump University, it's hard to see how he can get a lot of mileage in these areas. I can just see Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway on The View saying, "Well, Donald does have two less rape allegations against him than Hillary's husband…"