Trump was defensive about the issues of his tax returns and the "birther" issue. I believe it would have been better to explain that he isn't releasing his tax returns because his opponents (including the mainstream media) would go through them line-by-line looking for ways to criticize Trump. People would have understood that. He could have said that he changed his mind about Obama's birthplace. In both cases, he should have argued that the people didn't care about those issues--they cared about the economy, jobs, and terrorism and that's what the debates should focus on (kind of like when Bernie Saunders foolishly said to Hillary that "The people are tired of hearing about your e-mails".)
Hillary, on the other hand, was scripted, handing out platitudes about investing in jobs and even mentioned the universal cliche about eliminating corporate tax loopholes. Politicians always talk about eliminating tax loopholes without getting very specific. I think that's a good idea, but it never happens; they can't even do a budget. She came across as arrogant and phony, and surely nobody believes anything she says. She did manage to stand there for 90 minutes, which wasn't a sure thing.
Lester Holt took a lot of justified criticism for his obvious favoritism toward Hillary. He got through the whole 90 minutes without mentioning the e-mails, the Clinton foundation, Benghazi, Libya, or dozens of proven lies. He "fact-checked" Trump several times, even arguing with him like Candy Crowley did to Romney in 2012, assuming facts not in evidence.
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