Get your popcorn

KAILUA-KONA — The fact that I was sitting in a movie theater, popcorn and soda in hand, watching a presidential debate filmed in Sin City pretty much sums up this year’s election.

Regal Makalapua Stadium 10 hosted a screening of the third and final debate of the 2016 presidential race Wednesday, just under three weeks before election day on Nov. 8. The debate, screened live, took place at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Makalapua was one of 206 Regal cinemas nationwide that aired the debate, offering voters a chance to watch Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face off on the big screen in surround sound.

Regal Entertainment Group held the screening at no charge to patrons, even offering a free small soft drink with any popcorn purchase. A flyer advertising the event also invited attendees to “cheer (or jeer?) your favorite candidate.”

Once armed with a box of popcorn, soda and candy — the saltiness and lack of any real substance a perfect complement to the afternoon’s entertainment — I headed into the cinema to take my seat with about 11 other people in the audience, a number that swelled to about 50 within the first few minutes of the debate.

I’m not going to use this article to go into detail about who won or lost Wednesday’s debate. I’ll leave that to the pundits and the comments section below the online version of this article, which I’m confident will feature a level-headed, nuanced discussion about the policies referenced throughout the afternoon.

Most in the audience sat attentively as Trump and Clinton began the debate, each candidate outlining his or her respective vision of the Supreme Court and speaking to issues such as gun rights and abortion. Yet as the debate went on, some took a more participatory role in the process.

One woman appeared to grimace at Clinton’s assertion that she supports the Second Amendment, later shaking her head when the former secretary of state brought up her stance on abortion.

Toward the back of the theater, a handful of people laughed in response to Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S. – Mexico border and again at a reference to “bad hombres” already in the United States.

And that’s the way it was for the extent of the debate, Clinton and Trump supporters going tit-for-tat in response to zingers and one-liners made by the candidates, one of whom will, in all likelihood, be the next president of this country.

At one point, an audience member cheered at moderator Chris Wallace’s reference to Wikileaks and the campaign emails and speeches released by the organization. Minutes later, cheers rang out at Clinton’s suggestion that Vladimir Putin would “rather have a puppet” as president of the U.S., a reference to allegations from the left that Trump is too cozy with the president of the Russian Federation.

Others spoke directly to the candidates, particularly Trump.

When the businessman dismissed Clinton’s ability to defeat the Islamic State group saying she’s “going to get rid of nobody,” a woman wearing a pro-Clinton shirt pointed at the screen and yelled “you!” at Trump. Another attendee offered repeated affirmations to the Republican candidate, saying “that’s right” and “mmhmm” when he criticized the handling of an effort to retake the city of Mosul.

One audience member vocally balked at Clinton’s suggestion that Barack Obama “saved the economy,” while another loudly called Trump’s closing statement “literally the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my entire life.”

After the debate, I caught up with three Hawaii Preparatory Academy students who attended the afternoon’s screening.

Overall, they said, the debate was an improvement over the second debate in substance.

“They kept to the subjects pretty well,” said Daniel Cohen, 18.

Cohen said he’s “stuck between who I’m going to vote for” but said he’s leaning toward Trump.

Although he disagrees with the Republican’s politics and positions on the issues, he said, he agrees “with the political movement” Trump represents, saying the country needs “more representation” than what the two-party-dominated system offers. He added that he doesn’t like Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or the Green Party, represented by Jill Stein.

“I don’t think their plans are up to par,” he said.

Jeffrey Marks, also 18, said he’s planning to vote for a write-in candidate.

Rachel Bonn, 17, can’t vote in this election, but said she’s “more of a Hillary girl” and criticized Trump’s stance on abortion.

Marks commended Regal Entertainment Group’s screening of the debate, saying it’s “very effective” at bringing more people into the process.

It was also a benefit to be able to hear the public’s reactions to the debate, he said.

Cohen said he “loved it,” adding that he appreciated the fact that the screening was just a stream of the debate itself, without any news commentary.

“I felt like it was less biased in that sense,” he said.