Trump raises questions about various Wikileaks revelations with regard to the Clinton campaign, which Clinton turns into an attack on Russia’s meddling in the election — and Trump decides to respond by … rising in partial defense of Vladimir Putin. (This allowed Clinton to accuse Trump of being Putin’s “puppet.”)

And on it went, through Trump’s taxes, his revolting comments about and alleged behavior toward women, his reckless statements about foreign policy and immigrants. Every time it looked like Clinton might be on the ropes, she managed to pivot to some outrageous or insulting or irresponsible comment that Trump has made over the past 16 months.

Trump’s replies? They rarely amounted to more than petulant and peevish gesturing in the direction of a rebuttal. If you’re inclined to trust Trump (someone must, right?) and you spend all day immersed in Fox News and Breitbart, then maybe some of Trump’s responses to Clinton in the debate’s final 45 minutes made semi-coherent sense. But I suspect most viewers were left thinking, “What the hell is this guy ranting about? He sounds like a lunatic.”

And there you have it: Hillary Clinton won the third debate, like she will win the election itself, for the simple and compelling reason that she isn’t a lunatic.