trumpFollowing last night’s first Presidential debate, pundits took to the Twitter and television to exclaim a big fat “meh” about the two candidates.  The Wall Street Journal‘s Dan Henninger summed it up best:

Hillary Clinton’s primary goal in the debate was to get Donald Trump to restate what he’s said before about Muslims or Hispanics and his presumably misogynistic attitudes toward women. The stuff that upsets people. Her do-or-die goal was to cut down Mr. Trump among doubtful white upper-middle-class voters. These are the battleground-state Americans who live in suburban Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Columbus and in North Carolina, Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin. With the rest of the white vote locked up, these upper-middle-class Republicans and independents will make or break the Trump candidacy.

“Hillary needed either to convince them that Donald Trump is unfit or induce Mr. Trump to do it for her by “scaring” these crucially important voters.

“Donald Trump needed to give these same people a “get out of Trump jail” card—a reason to look past his flaws and just vote for him rather than the other three options available—her, a Libertarian, or stay home—all votes they really don’t want to cast.”

Henninger declared Trump a photo finish winner, by the way. Of course, Clinton did not help her cause by lying from the very beginning – “Donald, it’s good to be with you.” That wasn’t even believable.

But then came the polls. The Hill, CBS, CNBC, and more. These are not right-leaning sources and average Americans overwhelmingly picked Trump as the winner of the debate. So, pundits with their rarefied air can declare that Trump missed this opportunity or sniffled too much or nitpick this or that, but they each have but one vote just like the rest of us come November.

The pundits and the political class have been wrong about Trump from day one and average Americans have rejected their views this entire election season. Why would Americans, tired of talking heads, start listening to them now? As counterintuitive as it may seem, Trump may just be the people’s candidate.