After all three debates, our analysts say Clinton emerged victorious

WINNER: CLINTON

History often gives debates more credit than they are due. But this year, the debates seem actually to have influenced the course of the race. Clinton’s standing may have started improving just before the first debate, but by the time of Wednesday’s last meeting, she had secured a firm lead. The reason? Trump continued to run a Republican primary campaign in the general election. Whole different election. Whole different electorate.

The undecided (and lightly committed) voters Trump needed the most were suburban women and college-educated voters, who usually side with Republicans. Those voters were watching the debates to see if he could demonstrate the temperament, solidity and bearing of a president. He did not deliver. Trump seemed not to understand the difference between what gets him cheers at rallies and what he needs to win over residents of suburbs outside Philadelphia, Columbus, Ohio, and similar locales in other swing states. Hillary Clinton is a flawed candidate, too, but she spoke to those voters, and polls show they responded.

WINNER: DRAW

Call this one a tie. Trump’s fierce attacks on Clinton during the second debate aimed to motivate his core supporters, and he appears to have succeeded in doing that -- preventing more Republican officials from deserting him. In the third debate, he stressed conservative positions on gun control, abortion and taxes -- all issues that help rally the Republican base.

Clinton repeatedly found ways to remind Democratic voters of her positions on reducing the costs of college, protecting abortion rights, opposition to the Citizens United decision and other liberal touchstones.

The problem for Trump is that the Democratic base is bigger than the Republican one. He needed to reach beyond his base and largely failed.

WINNER: CLINTON

On policy, Clinton won hands down – because Trump so often floundered. On foreign policy, a potential vulnerability for Clinton, Trump was clearly over his head. He claimed repeatedly that he opposed the Iraq war before 2003 (he didn’t) and that the Syrian city of Aleppo has fallen (it hasn’t). He struggled to explain his views on nuclear weapons. Clinton’s positions aren’t uniformly popular, but as a former secretary of State she knows the material better.

On economics and jobs, Trump’s approach boils down to a simple equation: Lower taxes will produce spectacular economic growth rates (at least 5%, he said in the third debate), thus solving every problem from jobs to the national debt. If only life were that simple. Clinton has a hard time distilling her domestic policies to clear, concrete examples, but she hammered at the fact that Trump’s tax proposals would mostly benefit the wealthy and blow a hole in the federal budget – assertions that have the added advantage of being true.

WINNER: CLINTON

Donald Trump huffed and he puffed — and very well seemed to blow away any chance of winning the White House. From seeming to stalk Hillary Clinton during the town hall debate to his frequent “did not” interruptions (often contradicted by his own videotaped statements), Trump turned in a series of performances that struck many voters as petulant. He had moments of sobriety and substance. But those only seemed to last about 30 minutes at a stretch. Hillary Clinton wins this category, hands-down.