The end of the debate, I believe the mask dropped on Hillary for the very first time I have ever seen (and yes, I've watched many of her speaches and her pathetic "tearing up" moment that seemed horribly rehearsed...).

She seemed like she was about to go into a final semi-agressive push, and didn't. She said the same words she had obviously wanted to close with... but she seemed actually resigned when she said the words "don't worry... we'll be fine". She didn't have the same fake smile plastered on her face that had rigidly seemed botoxed into place the entire debate...

She sounded hollow when she finished off with the intended-to-be-strong line of "I just hope the country will be as well". (funny that she had rehearsed a very good line that had been used by Edwards).

I think she knew, going into this debate that she had to knock one out of the park. Obama set the tone and she couldn't comfortably capitalize by going negative... and her first opening was over the childish stupidity of "you dared not write every phrase that you used yourSELF!... " which made her look grasping and pathetic.

She was desperate to get her digs in on the health care issue, get in her really good line on "imagine if social security and medicare were voluntary..." but Obama handled the exchange quite well, reminding voters that her high-handed no-compromise approach FAILED in 1993, and insisting on everything will only result in another debate on how to get health care passed in 4 years... and then Iraq came up and she was back on defense - on the issue that she could never defend herself on (because there's no actual defense for her stance)...

Depending on where you stand, you might think she won... or you might think she lost (I certainly do) this debate... But no-one on Earth is a mindless enough pro-Clinton zealot to imagine she knocked this thing out of the park. Obama clearly showed his policy gravitas equaled hers, and most of their policy was very similar. She was utterly disproven in her campaign's most consistant refrain (which, sadly, has been: "Obama has no substance").

She lost the race tonight, and she knew it... Her final statement seemed genuine. When she was saying "we'll be fine" it felt like a concession.

I believe that's why it got a standing ovation. I was happy to see it as well.

funny that she had rehearsed a very good line that had been used by Edwards

Yeah, particularly hilarious in light of her phony plagiarism charges against Obama, repeated yet again tonight.

Mr. American Idol always start with ahhhh, ahhh, yeah ok here it comes, ahhhh, so and so. I wish he can speak about his agenda eloquently, geez frickin louise... I'm trying to tell myself that he will better better than Hillary but he just isn't. It's like having another Bush who can't get his agenda straight from the get go... it's like he's thinking about what people want to hear.

I sort of think of Hillary as being like Joan Cusack's character from "School of Rock."

Hillary Clinton borrows a few lines

<link>

What kind of oversight allowed her to even consider using the suffering and courage of disabled American veterans in her closing remarks, given that they wouldn't be suffering and disabled had she and others like her voted their conscience instead of their perceived political good?

And how is this point so overlooked? We were all sucked into the emotion of the moment, I guess, so that's one thing she's improved on in the course of this campaign. But the moral tone deafness betrayed by her use of that image alone is enough to confirm that I could not in good conscience vote for her.

PDC101--

Yeah, Obama sometimes says a few "ums," "ahs" and false-starts. I do, too. You probably do, too. The difference is, we're not being videorecorded while we do it. What, are you callin' me (and yourself) stupid?!

The difference between Obama's false starting and Bush's "duh..."ing is that Obama false-starts, then goes on to say something. Bush false-starts, and then goes on to say nothing, followed by a false-finish. And maybe he'll throw in a "terrist" or two, to remind us why we're all here.