Following the third and final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, I felt both relief and disappointment.  This has been an especially painful campaign cycle between two candidates who are widely accepted as undesirable for office by the majority of my peers, friends, family and almost anyone I have discussed the 2016 election with.  The hostile, almost tabloid-esque conduct of the race to the executive office this year has been about as appealing as a race to the dentists office, with an equally uncomfortable outcome to look forward to.  However, after the final debate I feel somewhat disappointed.  Maybe I was waiting for Trump to say something truly jaw-dropping, or for Clinton to faint onstage during debate.  But now that the last debate is over, I realize that I sat through 90 minutes of the same uninspired bickering as the last two debates.  Neither candidate gave an original, fresh performance this time around, and I am still not compelled to support either Trump nor Hillary.

During this debate, the topics of immigration, the economy, military involvement in the Middle East, and personal scandal were predictably highlighted in this debate.  Both candidates played shamelessly to their respective party’s voter base.  Clinton harped on the revitalization of the middle class through vague job creation and education-based entitlements.  Trump played to the right wing, focusing on 2nd amendment and abortion rights. Clinton also seemed to come across as bipartisan in her responses to Trump’s arguments.  This was a smart move in order to seem agreeable on topics such as strengthening boarder security and gun ownership to undecided voters, who will most likely decide the winner of this race.  In my opinion, the most notable part of this debate was Clinton’s accusation that Trump would claim that Clinton somehow rigged the election.  She pointed to past examples where Trump denounced setbacks by claiming that he was cheated out of victory, including an Emmy award for his reality show, The Apprentice.  While Trump’s paranoia of the Clinton campaign machine is pitiful, I found it ironic that Clinton pointed this out after claiming the Russians were using Wikileaks to influence the race.  I felt like this was a familiar tune to what she had just accused Trump of.  As the debate drew to a close, I felt a familiar sensation of disappointment that, yet again, neither candidate has convinced me that they deserve my vote.