On Monday US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump held their first presidential debate, ahead of the presidential elections on November 8.
Before then, the two candidates are slated to hold two more debates, on October 9 and October 19. There will also be a vice-presidential debate this Tuesday.
Dr. Robert Watson, Professor of American History and politics at Lynn University, told Radio Sputnik that in his opinion, Hillary Clinton gave a better performance than Donald Trump, who needs to better his performance in Monday's debate.
"It was not a good performance for him, and he needs to be really start preparing and boning up for the second debate because it's getting to be make-or-break time. This is tight race and he simply was not doing the things he needed to do to reassure voters, or to attract some of those undecided moderate voters."
"This could end up being a rather close race, the polls tightened over the last month, although Secretary Clinton, with a win at the debate, got a bounce of a couple of points, which is not uncommon from a good debate performance," Watson said.
"They're not very popular candidates and a lot of people are looking for a reason to switch, or asking the candidates basically, give me a reason to vote for you. So for that reason they matter, and I think history also shows us that a magical moment on stage or a major gaffe or stumble on stage could be a deciding factor."
"We saw that in 1976 with Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. It was a very close race, Ford had a big stumble when he was asked about the Soviet Union and the Cold War, he appeared to be unprepared and that may have been a deciding factor."
"Likewise in 1980, a lot of voters and analysts had concerns about Ronald Reagan being a loose cannon and will he get us into a war, but Reagan looked calm and in control during the 1980 debate and bested Jimmy Carter, and that allayed a lot of concerns that voters had about him," Watson said.
"Trump has promised that he is going to take the gloves off, more so, in the next debate, and will probably bring up a lot of very personal and critical comments about Secretary Clinton. So if you think the first debate was bad, get ready to take a shower because the second is going to be a mudbath," Watson said.
