The Democratic Debate the Morning After

    There was no clear consensus on who benefited from last night's debate. Ben Smith in the Politico noted that Roger Simon of the Politico said Edwards, Mark Halperin of Time said Obama, and Joe Klein of Time said Clinton. Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic blogged that Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post seemed to give it to Edwards as did Chuck Todd of NBC and that the Drudge online poll gave it to Obama.
    The most significant reaction we heard came from a focus group run on Fox News after the debate, available here. It parrots the reaction to a Roger Simon review of the debate from an astute web respondent:

    "Hillary seems to me to do well in these debates in terms of what journalists like but not in terms of what voters like. We don't need convincing that she knows about the issues or that she is well versed in the ways of Washington. She knows all the lingo, the proper answers, the old arguments....etc. And that's the problem...she's mastered the all the ways that we hate. She knows how to go after Republicans, to throw red meat, how to bring up the most divisive issues and rile up the base. She knows all the old Democratic talking points and she has them down to the tee. Half of the country is angry and the other half is defending her. Yay."

A CNN focus group after the debate also gave it to Obama.

    We stick with our earlier analysis: A good night for Obama and Edwards. Hillary is always her same political self which, over time, is not to her benefit.