Chuck Todd: Obama passed with flying colors

himself with a 'meltdown moment' as Hillary had early on in the debate.

I'm a supporter of his but he does not. Luckily he doesn't embarrass himself either like Hillary did though with her blowup.

I didn't know how the public would react, but at least a pro gives BO a good score.

you've been here awhile but let Welcome you to DU, anyway!

Watching this shit from a distance is SURREAL. :freak:

Edwards made hay, Clinton tried and failed to come back, Obama closed the deal.

Go Edwards, the voice of real and
specific change.

Not.

But then I thought they all kind of stunk, in different ways.

Obama was best on national security issues and Iraq. I thought he was incredibly clear and presidential there. I thought it was a mistake for him to not answer some of Clinton's attacks directly (it seemed like he had been advised not to do that, but I think it was a mistake--that said, I think that is standard strategy for the front runner, which he temporarily is). He also gave the best response on the carbon issue. I don't think it worked so well for him to use elements of his unity and hope thing in this context: it's great when he can expound at length on it at a rally, doesn't work in a debate.

Clinton was good when she wasn't attacking. She got some of her mojo back. But she looked pretty prickly at times.

Edwards really doesn't have a handle at all on national security/foreign policy. He was totally out of his element there, and when he said he would "go get 'em" (the terrorists), I could only think of "smoke 'em out George." As for the rest, he has one note: the economic populist thing, and it gets applied like paste to absolutely anything asked. And while I understood why he decided to make nicey to Obama in order to try to knock Hillary off, I think it's useless for him: all it did was strengthen Obama.

Richardson: I thought he was a little wack tonight, but he answered a few things well. He couldn't decide whose side he was on: Clinton's (when he needed to defend experience) or Obama's (when he needed to do the Washington outsider thing: his answer to the youth thing totally helped Obama, which I felt Richardson didn't even realize he was doing).

Altogether, it was set up to pit the candidates as a tag team. I thought they were all tired and it sucked.