7 times Hillary Clinton owned Donald Trump in the first debate

As America settled down to their debate night drinking games, Australian political nerds settled in to live streams and Twitter to take stock of the state of the election campaign - with trepidation.

Would Hillary Clinton stuff it up and hand victory to Donald Trump, for whom the bar has been set extraordinarily low by pundits claiming he'd won just by "turning up"? (Apparently the fact that it's the first debate in American history with a female presidential candidate doesn't count for much in the "turning up" stakes).

How soon could Armageddon be arriving for us all?

As it turned out, despite an early, outrageous call from Sky News Australia's Ross Cameron that Clinton "has dementia", the Democratic candidate absolutely owned Trump in a debate with as many bizarre moments as you'd expect. Although whether that translates to the audience and voters remains to be seen. 

Here are some of the top clap-back moments and baiting tactics that reeled in the goods from Clinton. They're the moments that give us all a little bit of hope the election hasn't been lost to someone whose biggest claim to the US presidency is the fact he made money out of a million-dollar loan from his dad. 

1. Climate change

Hillary got Trump on the back foot early by pointing to some of his wilder claims, like the time he said climate change was a hoax made up by China. Expecting his inevitable denial, she let the audience know they can follow up with her live fact checking team online. Or, you know, just head straight to Twitter. 

Trump then fell spectacularly into an own goal for Hillary and her fact checkers, yelling that the 68-year-old has been "fighting ISIS her entire adult life." Erm...

2. Taxes

Clinton's owning of Trump often came in the form of clever baiting, laying the trap and just waiting for Trump to stumble into it. Like when she expertly brought up his poor tax record. Not only did she manage to deflect attention away from her own email scandal, she got Trump to basically admit that he doesn't pay his taxes. And that he's proud of himself for that.

3. Financial crisis

Likewise, she laid the trap for Trump when she accused him of "rooting for the housing crisis." His response? "That's called business." Umm Donald, I think some folks out there might disagree on that point. 

4. Race

On the topic of racism, Donald Trump performed an excellent demonstration everything that is wrong with American race relations by jumping straight to the issue of crime. Not on the fact that black Americans are targeted by law enforcement, but on his desire to continue to do so.

Defending the controversial "stop-and-frisk" police largely considered to be a vehicle for racial profiling and harassment, Trump suggested Clinton is afraid of uttering the words "law and order", and that the biggest race relations issue America faces is in fact crime within black and Hispanic communities: "African Americans and Hispanics are living in hell. You walk down the street you get shot… we have to stop the violence and bring back law and order."

In contrast to Trump, Clinton was actually willing to acknowledge the existence of racism, saying "I think implicit bias is a problem for everyone in society." And with the call of the night, when moderator Lester Holt asked her for a response to Trump she told him "just listen to what you heard." Goes for the whole debate, really. 

5. Preparation

When Trump tried to own Clinton by criticising her for preparing for the debate, rather than winging it on the seat of her pants as he was clearly trying to do. 

Boom.

6. Personality

When Trump owned himself with the biggest joke of the night, claiming: "My greatest asset is my temperament. I have a winning temperament."

No words necessary, except: "OK..." and a little dance of laughter. 

7. Health

When Holt pressed Trump on his comments about Clinton lacking the "presidential look", he tried to flip the issue to her "stamina", saying: "She doesn't have the look, she doesn't have the stamina... to be president of this country you need tremendous stamina."

Hillary's response: "As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world, or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina."

She then ran hard with the opportunity to talk about Trump's vile sexism, an issue that - judging from the attack ad the Clinton camp released this week featuring nothing but Trump's own words about women - is working for them. 

"He tried to switch from looks to stamina, but this is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs."

Of course, there were some uncomfortable moments for Hillary too. The email server question continues to be a problem for her, although she did a solid job of deflecting criticism back to Trump this time. And questions over her flip-flopping on the TPP were an awkward moment. But overall, she decimated Trump. From the start of the debate until the handshake at the very end. 

If anyone tells you otherwise, ask them what planet they were watching from.