leetdoria: "The debate was amazing. Hillary won BIG TIME in the debate. Hillary was composed, inspring, moving, eloquent, determined, and showed to the world watching how strong she would be as our next Commander in Chief. That's what America needs. Are we not proud?"

We are Devo!

leetdoria: "Obama on the other hand was stuttering, confused sometimes. I hope the media and the Americans could see the contrast between the two."

I saw that even with a head cold, Obama could just phone in his debate and manage to tie with Hillary Clinton.

leetdoria: "The standing ovation for Hillary was great, her statement was moving."

There seems to be a lot of controversy over this "standing ovation." The end of Hillary's statement was the end of the debate, and the standing ovation was not visible from the CNN camera angle. So how are people so certain that Clinton, and not the two of them together, received a standing ovation? It didn't read that way to me when I watched it live, and the CNN commentators did not describe it as such.

leetdoria: "Her compliment to Obama is a sign of respect showing herself as a great leader. Complimenting your enemy is one way of winning."

Well in that case, leetdoria, you have done a nice job with your very first Salon post ever. Welcome to Salon, oh spontaneously-showing-up-for-the-first-time one!

Objectively, I think Hillary won the debate. She didn't do what she needed to which I think is pretty much impossible without getting Obama to utter some kind of racial slur but she did well.

Overall, I think Hillary won the debate which is not surprising since I think that this is her format.

However, I think the xerox line will kind of haunt her as well as the "nothing I have endured compares to what the american people have endured" line which was lifted straight out of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. Oops!

Good for both of them however in trying to force an actual debate when the moderators clearly just wanted a cat fight.

Obama won this debate like Bush won all his debates with Gore and Kerry.

Asking who "won" the debate is useless, it's like asking a bunch of pre-teens which one of their Idols won if American Idol contestants had a debate.

I watched the debates, and Obama was gracious to Clinton -- when she went on her whole Xerox attack, self-righteously invoking the "your own words" lines, I wanted Obama to say "You use speechwriters, yes? People who write your words for you? I don't hear you crediting them in your speeches." That would've stopped her cold, but he didn't go there, played nice. His rebuttal on "let's get real" was great, was one of the light moments of the debate and yet a good attack, chiding her for thinking his supporters were delusional, and so on.

Really, the debates, while Clinton may have "won" them, only highlighted Obama's arguments about the debates all along, that there's nothing much to be learned or gained from them. Barring a candidate mentally melting down or cracking under pressure, there was mostly rehashing in this debate, the same points, Clinton amazingly relying on every talking point she's used to date -- I kept wondering, given her flagging campaign, if she'd break out new material, but she didn't, and that was disappointing.

And the self-pitying lead-in of...

But people often ask me ... 'How do you keep going?' And I just have to shake my head in wonderment, because with all of the challenges that I've had, they are nothing compared to what I see happening in the lives of Americans every single day."

...was Nixonian, although it was no "Checkers Speech" for her, not likely to turn the tide.

When she got to the "we'll be alright" line, it felt like a surrender on her part, an acknowledgment that she's going to lose this campaign, or at least a last, mournful stab at Winning Through Pity.

All of her arguing points, though competently rendered in the debate, have been refuted by Obama's candidacy. She's been telling us why she'd be a great president, and Obama's been showing us.

To any remaining open-minded people out there: Before you join the masses and cash in the Hope coupon and jump on the Obama Train for destination unknown, I hope you will take a lingering look at the strength and tenacity of Hilary Clinton. She is steady under fire, public and personal. She has proven that she can withstand traumatic crises and prevail with dignity. She is articulate, accomplished, and ready. I have considered voting for each of them, but in my final analysis, my bottom line is this: After 7 years of Bush II, I am not prepared to cast my vote for the inspirational but thus far unproven Sen. Obama. Yes, I admire him, and expect that I will vote for him in a future presidential race. But seven years ago another hopeful but untested candidate was elected. Disastrous. We're at the 11th hour. Give me the candidate who has been tried in the fire, still steady and standing. Hopes and dreams are great, but strength and commitment are greater....at least when the stakes are this high.

This wasn't a football game and there is no way to tell who "won" except filtered through the lens of your own bias. You think Clinton won. I think Obama won. The fact is, neither of them screwed up too bad, so in that sense, they both "won."

I'll let my bias show a bit and say that I don't think this debate is going to change the trajectory of the race in Texas and Ohio, which means that Obama will continue to nibble away at Clinton's negligible lead and she'll concede on March 5. In case you hadn't noticed, her closing remarks were the rough draft of her announcement that she will be "suspending" her campaign.

I thought she did an OK job. (and I'm an Obama supporter) The Xerox thing made me cringe. It wasn't even funny. Unfortunately for her, she needed a knockout that just didn't come.

I felt Obama did a skillful job of saying "I agree with Hillary on this BUT..." and injecting one or two important other related issues to the topic. Consistently Hillary held an expression that said "Darn, I didn't say that! Darn, I should've said that." There were several issues and points like this throughout the debate and it was brilliant on the part of Obama to do it that way.

As much as she'd like to deride Obama's supposed appeal to emotions, her campaign should have learned in NH that it's a necessary part of a successful campaign. She has received a mostly positive reaction from her 'closing moments' - a relatively heartfelt display of 'her own voice' she said she discovered in NH but left behind somewhere since then, in favor of stiff, contrived, political stumping. Too bad her campaign let her down in this respect because now its too late for her to fix it.

Obama did an excellent job of putting forth his policies but also making the point which I believe is the crix of his campaign: ideas are in no short supply. Washingotn isn't effective because there too much partisanship and small-mindedness. If you can't build coalitions with friends and 'enemies', who cares how good you ideas are? They'll not get done.

Can't argue with that.

BTW I loved his term Google for Government (and the idea behind it). It highlighted IMO whole generational difference in point of reference as well as a fundamental difference in his ideas about how the government should work.

He did a great job last night.

I'm not anonymous :)