I rather enjoyed the debate tonight. After watching the CNN commentators gingerly tiptoe around the concept of "The You Tube" all day like those natives in "The Gods Must Be Crazy", it was kind of a relief to see that it was a pretty normal format. The candidates seemed loose and the YouTube questioners played both light and tough. It didn't feature any in-depth foreign policy along the riveting lines of Kimoy and Matsu but it's early days yet.
The emerging roles in these debates look like this to me: Clinton is commanding, Obama is charming, Edwards is earnest, Biden is righteously indignant, Richardson is surprisingly off-beat, Dodd is normal, Kucinich is arrogantly unapologetically liberal, and Gravel is the grumbling curmudgeon. These roles have begun to gel in my mind, although they are likely to change as the list gets smaller and they begin challenging each other more directly.
Tonight's debate questions and answers were all put up on YouTube by Politics TV if you want to rate the clips or leave comments.
I personally thought the best answer of the night went to Edwards, who gave a much better performance tonight than he has in earlier debates. His answer to the health care question was passionate and heartfelt and he made a better case for the need for universal health care in his anecdote than any of the others did. He seemed to me to be deeply engaged.
Judge for yourself.
I have to give it to Edwards tonight.
Update: I just saw on CNN that their "people-meter" or whatever it is registered the highest rating for Edwards health care answer. I guess I have my finger on the pulse -- as it were.