Before last night’s debate, I suggested the media was likely to emerge with one of two narratives about the state of Hillary Clinton’s campaign: Either she was mounting a comeback, or she was in a downward spiral. “It may not take all that much,” I wrote, “for the media to choose one narrative over another and then find all sorts of ‘evidence’ to reinforce it.”

Indeed, I thought Clinton did reasonably well in Las Vegas, and so did my FiveThirtyEight colleagues. As with the Republican debate last month, I asked them to grade each candidate’s performance from A+ to F based on how much each candidate helped his or her chances of winning the nomination. On average among 15 ballots, Clinton’s grade was an A- (I gave her a B+), ahead of Bernie Sanders, who averaged a B for a solid second place. Martin O’Malley (C+), Jim Webb (D+) and Lincoln Chafee (D) were well behind.

But Clinton was far from perfect. She gave ambiguous or evasive answers on several questions, such as on marijuana legalization and health care benefits for children of immigrants who entered the country illegally. On other questions, she gave answers that might have played well to liberal Democrats but which might not be received as favorably by general election voters (such as saying she’d “make the wealthy pay” for paid family leave and other welfare programs). Sanders gained more Twitter followers during the debate than Clinton, meanwhile, and got considerably more Google search traffic.

Read the article “The Media Underestimated Hillary Clinton, But Overestimated Her Debate” on fivethirtyeight.com.