HEMPSTEAD, the United States, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — A new CNN/ORC poll and experts at Hofstra University said Hillary Clinton was the winner of Monday night's presidential debate as the Democratic nominee faced off with Republican Donald Trump for the very first time in the 2016 election cycle.

The new poll showed a landslide victory for Clinton, with 62 percent of Americans that watched the debate saying Clinton won compared to 27 percent who said Trump won.

The pollster acknowledged that debate watchers normally skew Democratic, which may make for a more Clinton-friendly sample than the sample in a normal poll.

"But that is an overwhelming victory among these debate watchers we polled for Hillary Clinton," said David Chalian, political director of CNN.

Experts in the field of political science and rhetoric at Hofstra University also expressed similar views, arguing that Trump spent too much time explaining his decision for not releasing his tax returns, while failing to attack Clinton more aggressively on her mishandling of her private email servers and corruption allegations against the Clinton Foundation.

"Donald Trump did not quite change his communication style, which to many people may be disappointing," said Jingsi Wu, assistant professor of journalism, media studies and public relations at Hofstra.

"I thought Trump pretty clearly lost the debate," said Richard Himelfarb, associate professor of political science at Hofstra, noting that a lot of times Trump had been on his defense.

"I don't think Trump really hit her hard enough on the emails, he talked about it for a minute and then went away," Himelfarb said.

Experts also said Clinton should have made her points more precise for the general public to understand.

Tomeka Robinson, associate professor of rhetoric at Hofstra, said Clinton was frequently not concise on her policy issues, "so the general public at home doesn't necessarily know all of the things she's talked about."

The debate marked the first of three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate that will take place before election day on Nov. 8.

The fiery clash between the two candidates had focused on the economy, taxes, racial relations and their temperaments, but experts said the content of their rhetoric was nothing new.

"I don't think a lot of us are totally taken by surprise, in terms of how the two candidates came out and went at the debate through their best and most comfortable way of communicating," said Wu.

The debate performance by each candidate could be crucial to catch the majority of votes needed to clinch the presidency, as polls all showed a tightened race in many of the swing states in recent weeks.