My Impressions of the Democratic Debate

I came into the broadcast a bit late, but did manage to catch the Democratic debate last night. My impressions? We can now start to see the real contest begin to gel as competitors vie for an air of credibility in front of the country. John Edwards was the big "winner" of the night in terms of attempting to change his image. He was aggressive and seemed unafraid up there. His tone of self-righteousness became a bit much by the end, but he seemed much less like an also-ran this time around. Obama and Clinton were unchanged by last night. Both came across as tired of debating with such a large crowd, but able to hold their own in every exchange. Bill Richardson came across as a somewhat smarm politician desperate to remind the electorate that he existed. And both Gravel and Kucinich seemed mostly peeved at being left at the fringes of the discussion in a both a literal and figurative sense. Every throwaway question was given to them, and the CNN cameras seemed to make every effort to accentuate their isolation from the mainstream of the debate. Dodd was the only man who looked MORE presidential and credible walking out of the debate, often looking like the only adult amongst a group of squabbling teenagers.

Overall, I do not think the debate did much for anyone. Edwards may come out of this a stronger candidate, and Dodd may come out of it more credible. But overall, CNN seemed more interested in cementing existing impressions than giving us anything new to talk about.