World views on Hillary, Trump debate

LONDON: British officials didn’t offer any immediate reaction, but one of Ireland and the UK’s biggest betting houses, which has long offered odds on everything from US political races to horse racing, declared Hillary Clinton the winner. Ireland-based Paddy Power said in a statement that its “political traders felt that she was the clear winner of the debate and landed some clever blows.”

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met individually with both nominees just last week, did not express any views in the immediate wake of Monday night’s debate. Major Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, however, said in a front-page editorial that Clinton had “overpowered” Trump in the “testy” debate. 

Wang Pei, a graduate student in communications studies in China, was watching the debate from a cafe in Beijing, said Clinton carried herself better. “I personally like Trump’s character and the feeling that he’s a fighter,” Wang said. “But from today’s performance, I think Clinton was more like a mature politician and Trump looked a bit like a misfit in this kind of setting.”

Milton Gan, a Sydney-based photographer from Australia, said it seemed like Trump was trying to rein in his temper for the first 15 minutes, then went off the rails. Narushige Michishita, a Japanese analyst, said it was in some ways heartening to hear his country mentioned in the debate, since Japan is often overlooked these days. But he disagreed with Trump’s criticism that Japan and other US allies aren’t contributing enough to their defense.

“There is a small truth to what Mr. Trump was saying, in the sense that Japan was a kind of free-rider or at least a cheap-rider back in the 1970s and ‘80s,” said Michishita, director of the security and international studies program at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

In Philippines, Victor Andres Manhit, president of the think-tank Albert del Rosario Institute for Strategic and International Studies, welcomed Clinton’s assurances that the US would honor its treaty obligations if she becomes president.

Manjeet Kripalani, executive director of the Mumbai-based foreign policy think tank Gateway House, said there were “no surprises.” “Both candidates were authentically who they are. She, the sophisticated, career politician. Donald Trump, the brash entrepreneur who people relate to,” she said.

Cho June-Hyuck, South Korean foreign ministry spokesman, said it would be inappropriate for the Seoul government to respond to comments made by US presidential candidates in the run-up to the vote. Trump said during the debate that South Korea should burden larger costs for the US troops stationed in the peninsula, and that the United States should let China to have a larger role in controlling the actions of North Korea.

Cho said the Seoul government is closely monitoring the election, and that South Korea has been doing its part to strengthen the combined defense force between the countries and create a stable environment for the stationed US soldiers.