#Winners and #Losers: Debate Edition

Originally published by Ian Bremmer on LinkedIn: #Winners and #Losers: Debate Edition

Hillary won, Trump lost. That’s the easy part. Here are the rest of the winners and losers from last night’s first presidential debate.

Winners

Rosie O’Donnell—asking the moderator for extra time so you can talk about Rosie O’Donnell? Wow. If there really is no such thing as bad publicity, Rosie might be set for a comeback. Thanks, Donald! #MakingRosieRelevantAgain

Bill Clinton—didn’t have to deal with Gennifer Flowers. #TwoMoreChances

Marc Mezvinsky—it’s hard being a good son-in-law. Imagine you also have to run the in-law’s presidential campaign. Thankfully, Marc Mezvinsky doesn’t have to. #FreeJaredKushner

The IRS—because last night was maybe the only time in US history that blaming the IRS was not good politics. #TaxMeIfYouCan

Losers

Vladimir Putin—for a guy who’s been a major player in the campaign news, his lack of prominence last night has to sting. Let’s see what he can hack before the October 9th debates. #OutOfSight

Hofstra Crowd—don’t cheer, people. It was literally your only responsibility last night. Don’t expect decorum from the candidates if you can’t keep quiet yourselves. #BeTheChangeYouWantToSee

Lester Holt—Lester could have checked a few more facts. Honestly, we were better off having debate via Skype. #DontHoltBack

NYC Airports—based on Trump’s description, New York airports needs major upgrades. Sounds like they could use some tax-dollars… oh, right. #PayUpOrGoGreyhound

Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, foreign affairs columnist at TIME and Global Research Professor at New York University. He will be teaching a course on Global Political Risk with other Eurasia Group faculty at NYU Stern from October 24-25. To learn more and register for the course, click here . You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.