Intense! Both candidates sounded smart at times, both sounded confused at times. The discussion about identity politics was tough (Obama brought up race, Clinton, gender. Both important issues.) NAFTA debate was good, health care debate was good. Clinton frightened me at times, and Obama bored me with his ramblings at times. I wish they would have asked Barack the question on Russia before Clinton, because it would have been more illuminating in terms of his foreign policy approach. I also wondering why they didn't re-address up the point about sitting down with Iran after discussing the Farakhan/Anti-semite thing (Mahmoud has said some very anti-semetic things and has threatened to wipe Israel off the map). Still, he sounded good throughout. Clinton taking back the Iraq vote made a stronger impact than Obama's Schiavo vote (but I guess that's a mixed blessing).

And no one discussed the subprime crisis, but whatevs.

Cringe moments:

Clinton mentioning the SNL moment (although that sketch was hi-laaaarious). It seemed unnecessary at this juncture.

Obama trying to pull a Clinton at the end of the debate in almost exactly the same way (come on guy!), and I giggled when he was railroaded by Brian Williams because, surprise, there's another question :).That was funny.

The entirety of the MSNBC pre-debate coverage. Keith Olberman is a total shill! Someone needs to put a leash on him. He's ridonk. I feel like he's got a cruuuush on Obama. I feel like Russert is laughing at him.

So, is Obama playing it both ways by not wanting to stick firmly to the public financing agreement he made with McCain? Is Hillary hiding something in her tax return, or is she just too busy as she claimed? Did anyone see SNL? What was your favorite sketch (I thought the Milkshake sketch was awesome)?

I think it became very clear that this nomination race needs to end.

Take a look at the thoughtful, polite petition addressed to Hillary Clinton asking her to asking her to drop the race.

<link>

Do you have anything to add to specific moments about the debate? Did you see SNL? Did you like the Milkshake sketch?

Bush could not name the man who had just taken over the Pakistani government.

Clinton could not name the heir apparant to the again belligerent State of Russia.

Hmmm....

Name? Or pronounce correctly? I don't think that hurt her, she stumbled over the pronunciation for a second and then smiled. The audience laughed, and I thought that moment actually worked in her favor (made her seem human).

I think Obama's denounce/reject argument worked in the same way as the Russia/name thing. It was funny, and it got a laugh from the audience.

What did you think Obama's strongest moment was? I thought he sounded pretty good discussing Pakistan and Bush. What did you think Clinton's strongest moment was? I thought she won the health care argument.

Who won the NAFTA argument?

It seemed like Hillary was going to break herself trying to hurt Obama in that debate.

He's acting like a real president should and no matter what persona or minor false issue she tries to use none of them are working.

I just love the thought of him as President pointing out where problems are and shining a light on issues AS THEY ACTUALLY ARE and getting a consensus of people involved in what we want for our world.

His ability to ignore the trivial, cut through spin and speak clearly and reasonably about matters sets him apart from what we have seen in politics for so long. Trying to censor the press, spin, false issues, fake outrage.. I've been forced to sit in a restaurant where those are the only things being served and I want new management to run things clean.

I don't mind voting for a woman for President. But I'm voting for a President. She has to try too hard and is only harming herself beating herself against him.

Maybe the country needs to be served the old dishes for longer. I know it's idealistic and stupid but if she wins with dirty tricks I'm not certain I won't be voting for Nader. My wife has already stated that.

I want the Country to be united again. Divided and blind we are weak against minority interests. She is dividing and blinding in her desperation to win. She has lost sight of herself she is trying so hard.

Ok forget I asked.

I didn't see the debate. I was planning to make up my mind about how it went by reading slate.com....hahahaha.

I had to watch it in Spanish on Telemundo. You'd be amazed at how much more drole these two come off in translation.

But I think that you've made some good points on the general feel of the debates.

:0)

Most of the rest of the debate I agree with you. But that one moment simply made her seem tantrumish... at best.

She did what she could to try to compose herself and set herself in a good light afterwards.. but that was the moment that will get played and re-played. NOT because the media are after her, but because that is the point that she did something outside the norm... By bringing up an SNL skit as analysis that supports her opinion, she did more damage to her credibility than a billion dollars worth of swiftboat style negative attacks ever could.

She also looked desperate to hoard the time even though she was willing to use a lot of filler - empty language - just to keep the mike... Obama looked content to let her speak since it only seemed to hurt her.

The Rusian president question was asked to whoever wanted it... and Hillary jumped in to answer first - which really shows how hurt she was over "getting all the questions asked first (which is well understood to be a major advantage and has historically been a point of contention when the OTHER candidate gets the question first)... But niether had much to say on that one.

Overall, she looked desperate and he was boring... I think he won hands down.

I actually thought one of the most interesting moments was Obama bringing up the Terry Schiavo thing, since Schiavo's case wasn't even on the radar screen and hadn't been for quite some time. The fact that he brought it up out of the blue tells me one of three things:

1) He has a really fantastic pit crew who prepped him for the possibility this question might come up and worked with him in advance on a well-crafted answer.

2) He's getting better at thinking on his feet...right when the debates are done (for now).

3) He honestly felt bad about not standing up and saying something, but "going with the flow" as a freshman Senator, and thus it was the first thing that he thought of when the question was asked.

Any of the three is a good reflection on who he is and how far he's come.

I agree, overall it was a little boring, with the same talking points. Although, when they played that initial vid of HRC's comments a thought it was going to get a little steamy--but it didn't.

The 16 minutes on health care was ridiculous. Russert or Williams should have just cut them off. They were both trying to one-up the other and it was a waste of time.

Hillary's complaint about having to answer all the questions first (which was, by the way, not true) and her reference to the SNL show made her sound whiney. She also appeared to be trying to hold on to the mike as long as possible to have the final say - and that didn't work for her, either.

Last night, we saw a more thoughtful Hillary. The only thing wrong with that is that she's switched up personas several times this past week. It's obviously she's being "handled" too much - and those handlers obviously don't agree with each other. Obama, on the other hand, was still Obama. I love the fact that he's just himself and doesn't try to impress people by being what he thinks they need at the moment. It gives people the feeling they can actually TRUST him. WOW, what a concept!!

Hillary is playing by the "old" political game rules - and because Obama is not having anything to do with that, it makes her appear disingenuous. I think she's a very competent woman, but it's truly time for a change.

Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton???? No way! And the American public is agreeing... Obama is winning primary after primary. It says a lot about our opinions about the state of affairs in our country. I'm just grateful we have someone as talented and intelligent as Obama in the mix. I really think he's going to be our next President, and I couldn't be happier!

Obama's strongest moment, ignored by all but a few commentators, was his response to Russert's question about "reserving" the authoirty of the U.S. to reenter Iraq in the event that Al Quaeda took over. It was an easy question since any President would reserve authority, as Obama said, anywhere in the world, not just in Iraq, when American interests were directly threatened.

What made this the turning point was that Clinton had called this same question a "hypothetical" that could not be answered. She never gave any answer to to this softball. Who looked presidential? Checkmate Obama.

As far as the tabloid drama stuff:

Hillary's SNL moment was awful.

I thought Obama's cheerful retort of, "Sounds good!" at the end of the clip of her summoning the celestial choirs was outstanding (and seemed genuine to boot.)

On more profound issues:

The Medvedev blunder in my opinion was huge although she seems to have gotten a pass on it. I say huge since she touts her experience on the world scene. I say huge because she got frustrated and said "whatever" like some valley girl. A Slate writer "assumed" Obama's reply would have been just as bad. Maybe so, but a bad practice to assume.

Hillary's whining about receiving more questions first was tacky and, in my opinion, a blunder. She opened herself to endless criticism by Russert who immediately pointed out that she jumped first on later questions, pointed this fact out all over the media today and will no doubt do so again on Sunday morning.

Hillary's excuses regarding her tax return was awful.

Hillary's semantics regarding rejecting/denouncing after jumping into a question THAT WASN"T EVEN directed at her was terrible.

Her demeanor and deportment was off.

Her "hypothetical" beg off was a huge blunder.