Hillary Clinton Wins Third Debate by Hanging on to Women

All Hillary Clinton had to do in the third and final presidential debate was to hang onto the female voters who have kept her comfortably ahead in national and battleground state polls. And she did it -- with a well-practiced sounding series of pledges and statements of policy, but also with a big boost from a far less disciplined Donald Trump.

She reiterated her commitment to abortion rights. He promised, using graphic terms to describe late-term abortions, to appoint Supreme Court justices who would undo that very right. She promised what she called sensible gun safety legislation, while Trump highlighted his National Rifle Association endorsement. He interrupted her relentlessly, calling her "a nasty woman" and a "liar," while she looked like a high school principal ignoring an unruly student, talking in detail about taxes, the Islamic State group and such Democratic favorites as raising the minimum wage and making college more affordable.

But it was Trump's openings -- including his astonishing remark that he would not necessarily honor the results of the election if it doesn't go his way -- that truly gave Clinton her best, political ad-ready soundbites of the debate.

"I will tell you at the time," Trump said when asked if he would follow longtime American tradition and concede if he loses the Electoral College. Clinton had the look of a candidate both appalled at the substance of the comment and amazed at the debate-points gift Trump had handed her.

"That is horrifying. You know, every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is is rigged against him," Clinton said, listing several cases in which Trump claimed he had unfairly lost something. When she mentioned that Trump employed similar excuses when his TV show fell short of winning an Emmy award, Trump interrupted her by saying, "should have gotten it."

Clinton kept going. "This is a mindset; this is how Donald thinks. And it's funny, but it's also really troubling. This is not the way our democracy works. We've been around for 240 years. We have had free and fair elections. We have accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what must be expected of anyone standing on the debate stage during a general election."

That exchange ended up defining a debate that was meant -- and for a time, indeed was -- an actual debate about actual issues. Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News asked about a series of issues, including immigration, the national debt, the Islamic State group, entitlement reform and other typical presidential campaign issues that have been subsumed by rhetoric more personal than policy-oriented.

But Clinton was ready, too, with detailed soliloquies that both underscored her own record while taking digs at Trump's. Clinton supporters have been frustrated at her failure in the second debate to more directly counter Trump's repeated criticism that Clinton has done nothing to change America for the better in the 30 years she has been in public life. Wednesday night, Trump went so far as to blame Clinton for the tax loopholes he himself took, saying if she had done a better job at closing those loopholes when she was senator, he would have paid more in taxes.

And Clinton on Wednesday night had what sounded like a well-prepared retort, comparing the two candidates' last three decades.

While she was at the Children's Defense Fund in the 1970s, battling discrimination against African-American students, Trump was getting sued for housing discrimination by the Justice Department, Clinton said. When she was working for school reform in Arkansas, Clinton added, Trump was borrowing millions form his rich father.

"In the 1990s, I went to Beijing, and I said women's rights are human rights. He insulted a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado -- called her an eating machine. And on the day when I was in the situation room, monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting the 'Celebrity Apprentice,'" Clinton concluded.

That side-by-side comparison is not likely to win over any Trump voters, who are attracted to his celebrity status, brash demeanor and business experience. But it was a summation for female voters -- especially those in places like suburban Philadelphia, who are pivotal to winning Pennsylvania -- of why she is the better, if not perfect, choice for them.

Democrats have long dominated among female voters in the general election, but Clinton is doing exponentially better. A PRRI/The Atlantic poll taken earlier this month has Clinton winning female voters by 33 points. Obama won women voters by 11 points against Mitt Romney in 2012.

Clinton checked some other Democratic base boxes -- slipping in, during a discussion of the Islamic State group and Muslim immigration, a mention of the attack on the gay and lesbian Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, over the summer. The killer, Clinton noted, was born in Queens -- just like Trump. The mention not only underscored Clinton's appeal to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters, but was specific to the Interstate 4 corridor, since the club was in the pivotal stretch of road in the pivotal state of Florida.

Clinton also took Trump to task for the series of allegations from women who say Trump groped, propositioned or sexually molested them. The allegations came after Trump himself was revealed, on tape, to brag about his fame allowing him to make sexual grabs at women without consequence. Clinton dodged a question about her reaction to her husband's infidelities, and Trump did not bring them up.

Asked by Wallace about the charges against the GOP nominee, Trump called the women liars, said he had never met them and that he did not even apologize to his wife about it, since he had done nothing wrong. Clinton, given her opportunity to respond, laid into him, noting that Trump had said in his rallies that he could not possibly have groped the women because they were not attractive enough for him.

"Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, and I don't think there is a woman anywhere doesn't know what that feels like. So we now know what Donald thinks and what he says and how he acts toward women. That's who Donald is," Clinton said, echoing the sentiments of first lady Michelle Obama, who recently delivered a speech on the topic.

Twice, Trump had to be chided by Wallace to stop interrupting Clinton so she could deliver her response to the allegations. And when the two were given a minute each to offer closing statements, Trump interrupted again as Clinton talked. "Such a nasty woman," he said.

Susan Milligan is a political and foreign affairs writer and contributed to a biography of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy." Follow her on Twitter: @MilliganSusan