One of the most important things about the debate is how it is covered afterwards.

How the media respond to the debate, how they weave it in to the wider narrative and incorporate the events on stage into their analysis and coverage is for my money even more important than the actual content of the debate.

A lot of people watch the debates. But many, many more will see stories about it or hear their friends talk about it. The use of words like ‘shaky’, ‘stumbling’, ‘uncertain’, ‘mediocre’ can be used about you in the preface or by-line of stories all over the internet and newspapers. Nightly bulletins will lead with phrases like ‘widely considered to have lost the debate’ or ‘trying to recover from his debate defeat’. Its like some form of Chinese water torture, eroding support, momentum and credibility day by day. A declarative sentence is scarcely to be found, and yet people reading and watching the coverage will be left with an unmistakable impression that you are losing.

This is one of those ‘narrative and positioning’ things i keep banging on about. Its not just that a good performance get you votes, the good performance gets you good coverage. And that is really what you are after. A good performance can sustain and build your campaign in the short term, but it is the consistent positive attention that really builds support and alters perceptions.

Trump has been feeling the rough end of this particular stick since the last debate. Early polls show that Clinton may have received a bounce from her performance. But more importantly for The Donald, he has been mentioned in connection with weakness, incompetence, ill-preparedness and failure in publications across the land. Clips have been replayed ad nauseum on youtube and the news showing him in a less than favorable light. Weeks of stories about growing trump support have abruptly stopped, and now people are talking about Clinton’s comeback.

To what extent this comeback will materialize remains to be seen. But this is exactly the sort of coverage likely to lead her back to ascendancy.

Watch this space.