Spin Cycle

A nice roundup of debate highlights over at TPM's Election Central notes that Hillary won a snap poll by Survey USA 39-15 over Obama, but Obama was the favorite in focus groups run by Fox and CNN.

Here is a debate transcript from CNN. Ben Smith at the Politico has post-debate talking points from Clinton, Obama.

Roger Simon thought John Edwards won, hitting his stride with a mad-as-hell anti-triangulation approach, but didn't like the comment on Hillary's coral jacket.

No kidding. Jackson Williams at HuffPost: "Memo to Edwards: Never put down a woman's attire to her face." Not unlike the lesson Rick Lazio learned.

Mark Halperin at Time liked Obama: "When he was good, he was very, very good."

But Joe Klein at Time thought Hillary scored heavily and looked "judicious and presidential" when she insisted, unlike Obama, that the proper groundwork would have to be laid before meeting with people like Castro and Chavez.

Jennifer Rubin at the American Spectator agreed: "Although it pains me to say it, there is simply no peer to Hillary. Obama's promised tour of the world's tin pot dicatators highlighted the gap in experience, judgment and preparation between the two. All but the most rabid of the Democratic base I think will come to see that."

Conservatives over at National Review felt the same way. Byron York found Obama advisor David Axelrod doing a "what he meant was..." on the dictator question. Kathryn Jean Lopez likes the fact that Hillary is not Nancy Pelosi.

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post thought the dominant dynamic of the debate was Obama's agent-of-change rhetoric vs. Hillary's voice of experience.

So did Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic, and he thought Obama did better because last night was more about change. Ambinder: "To some extent, Edwards and Obama advisers are frustrated that Hillary's experience credential hasn't come under greater scrutiny. They ask the question: when she was put in charge of something, did it usually fail or succeed?"

And the pundits at MSNBC thought the YouTube format was the real star of the night, and Anderson Cooper was the dud: "It was a great forum and a wonderful change of pace from what we've seen before."

John Riley