My take...

He couldn't do worse... 

Come on, Don Trump, just showing up beat the expectations of the debate. From the start everyone knew he would be hit with the tape and the loss of so many supporters. It was a given and any effort to respond would be expected. If Trump failed to show or completely avoided the question he would be a looser, but any answer, even the attack answer would be a plus. So yes Trump surpass expectations. The bar was on the floor, even he could climb over that with his stubby little fingers.

As for the answers? He gave no answers. But that is exactly what he always does. Even when he was hit with counter questions and prodded to respond, he changed the subject. Don has a steady set of 'go to's' that he can use. These are the ones that his core supporter wants to hear. They hate Hillary with a passion and love to hear him attack her. So Don just ignored the question and hit Hillary with his attacks, that is all he could do. If he actually answered the questions he wouldn't be pushing back on the shit that is raining down on him.

As for Hillary, she would win no matter what. For her to loose she would really have to screw up big time. But Hillary of course also had to dodge shit. Hillary has her big troubles, but Don's were much larger. The shit show before hand with the Bill Clinton sex "victims" was a way to hit Hillary and divert attention. What I don't understand is why Hillary didn't say, "Don, you are the one running for president, not Bill". That would deflect the side-show relevance back to him. Who cares what Bill did 30 years ago. We want to know what Don will do or would do now. Hillary blew it on that level.

But over all, this was a shit-show from the start and everyone knew it....