The screencap says it all . . . on today’s Morning Joe, reacting to last night’s presidential debate, Mika Brzezinski was nothing short of despondent.

Brzezinski repeatedly argued that although Hillary was “amazing,” did “great,” etc., it is Donald Trump who walked away the winner politically because he was able to “connect” with the concerns of broad swaths of the electorate. Readers are encouraged to view the video to understand the depths of Mika’s despair.

What do readers think? For what it’s worth, I think Mika is on to something. Hillary was obviously the more prepared, but on a gut level Trump connected with many Americans. He also avoided two major pitfalls: he never got too nasty with Hillary, and though he’s obviously not as knowledgeable on the details, he never got caught out on any embarrassing factual mistake.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I think overall for, I’m going to say “us,”and I put that in quotes, it’s a large group of people, I think probably we all thought Hillary won, but my blood pressure kept going up throughout the whole–I could not stop watching until the very end because there was something that was telling me he’s going to do quite well out of this. . . . I think he said things that touch on not just what primary voters think but what people are feeling on a number of levels. I just wouldn’t be surprised if he came out doing better in the polls after this, and she was not as great as she could have been. . . . I don’t know where I am getting this, just my overall gut feeling from watching the entire debate, she was amazing, she was really good. I just think that he’s going to do quite well out of this. . . . What do you look for [to determine who won debate]? WILLIE GEIST: [inaudible] new voters. MIKA: Okay. We’ll watch the polls. I think he’s going to get new voters. . . . Look, I just think she did everything she was supposed to do and she did a great job and she checked all of the boxes, all of them, and she even had a few moments with zingers. I think he connected. There were like seven times where he said things that really connect with the — where the emotions of a lot of American people are right now, and not just his people and not just certain types of voters. Let’s stop! This isn’t about us. . . . I watched. I thought, she’s doing good, she’s doing great but my blood pressure kept going up every time he spoke and I heard things that I know work. I hear it over dinner tables everywhere I go.



