The third and final presidential debate is over. Dr. Eric Morris, Missouri State University debate coach and communications professor, offered his views on last night’s event.
"As a presidential debate scholar I'll say that tonight probably did not have a significant impact on the election. The effect that debates have on the election tends to be very short-term. It is like any number of things that can happen in a campaign. It creates some impressions, some significant moments, but often the give and take of the next few days will cancel out that sort of an effect," he said.
According to Morris, there are very few instances in U.S. history where a strong evidence-based argument can be made that a debate resulted in a candidate winning that otherwise wouldn’t have.
Two students at the event talked about their views of the candidates. Jackson Specker said he’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton.
"What it comes down to for me is how the candidate is viewed in office by other foreign leaders and how they're going to be acting in office, and obviously it's a pretty clear choice for most rational people that Hillary has the the right attitude and experience when it comes to negotiations with other leaders or when it comes to negotiating with either chamber of Congress," he said.
Jake West said he’s pretty sure he won’t be voting for either Clinton or Donald Trump.
"I feel like either way I vote I won't be represented, and I feel as though I'd be voting for the vice-president candidate because I assume that there's an impeachment to be had either way and several trials to be had," said West.
He said he’ll probably write in either Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio.
