After tonight, if somebody says that both these candidates are equally bad, assume that they are ignorant of facts, haven’t paid attention, and are sorely lacking in IQ, because what has just been displayed is THE counter-argument to that claim. Hillary Clinton won this debate in the first 30 minutes, when Donald Trump avoided every question and stated zero specifics. If you’re a voter in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, any of the states potentially in play, and this debate did not convince you that one side is entirely in the right and one side is entirely lying, then god help you.

Hillary Clinton came out tonight and looked prepared, she acted calm, she smiled, she never once seethed with rage, and she acted rationally. In other words, she did everything she needed to, and Trump never knew what hit him. He attempted numerous comebacks, each parried intelligently by someone with far more grace, charisma, and experience than him.

And I’m fairly certain we’ll have our first female President because of it, and now I look forward to that day more than I had previously. Hillary drew people away from Donald Trump and drew the people on her side closer to her. She was unfazed by Trump’s one true hit on her – the “Super Predator” remark, because she has spent her life fighting for minorities and that was the one mistake she had made. She’s a human being, for Pete’s sake. Let’s not act otherwise.

All the humanizing, all the good publicity, everything Donald Trump went into the debates with tonight was washed away by the sheer strength and serenity in that strength of Hillary Clinton. If you were an undecided voter before tonight, you no longer are.

What’s more, I’m incredibly glad that neither third party candidate was there – although Jill Stein tried. Because they are unnecessary distractions in what boils down to a two person race. Both of them will lose points tonight, as Hillary came out and said what they could not, and in a time when she was vulnerable in the month leading up to this debate, neither was able to climb to 15 points, almost as telling as Trump’s inability to catch up.

Hillary delivered many a good line, but what will stick with me most is this – “you mean that I prepared. And I did. And I prepared to be President”. She came off competent, truthful, and she sounded genuine, which is something she sorely needed. She sounded like a President.

And just once more for feeling I’m going to return to my favorite item of the night – she remained calm. She remained calm in the face of one of our country’s biggest bigots, who said nothing but slander, who had no specifics and was just loud. That was his strategy, to be loud, and she remained calm. And tactically she beat him down. She beat him masterfully, and when I said earlier that she parried his blows, she did so like the most elegant fencer – the Muslim woman representing team USA for instance. She became that Olympic fencer, swift, graceful, careful when she needed to be but aggressive throughout. Brava!

I know who I’m voting for. And after tonight, you should too.

Good Night. Be Good to Each Other.