The first Democratic presidential debate of the 2008 campaign was "a surprisingly sedate and meandering affair, filled with as many moments of awkward humor as memorable insight into the qualifications of the candidates or the policy differences among them," reports the New York Times.
ABC News suggests "if you were looking for big fireworks or a knockout punch in the first Democratic presidential debate of the 2008 election cycle, you will no doubt be somewhat disappointed tonight. No one candidate seemed to dominate the field."
Walter Shapiro agrees, observing that "despite the breathless dissections by the TV talking heads, Thursday night did little, if anything, to change the dynamics of the race, other than to reaffirm the uncharacteristic comfort level of the Democrats with their leading presidential contenders."
"This is not just the jaded view from the press box. Amid the syncopated sound bites of the post-debate spin room, top advisors to all three leading candidates freely admitted as much -- as long as they were speaking privately."
David Broder, who has seen a few presidential debates in his day, says "the overall impression... is that the Democrats have a field of contenders that, by any historical measure, matches in quality any the party has offered in decades."
However, Newsweek notes that "in the reality TV show that is the 2008 campaign, the Democratic field ganged up on one contender, with the clear intention of voting him off the island. Hillary Clinton may be the frontrunner in the polls, but Barack Obama was the only candidate to draw repeated fire from his rivals."
But Obama held his own and a Survey USA poll of viewers suggested Obama fared the best among the candidates, followed by Clinton and Edwards.
If you missed it, The State kept score of the best and worst moments for each candidate.
April 27, 2007
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