Assessing the debaters and the moderators

I watched the final 20 minutes of last night's debate this morning. The debates sponsored by CNN and MSNBC are worlds apart. CNN's moderators tend to throw in so many questions about insubstantial topics, often more interested in the "horse race" aspects of the campaign than the issues.

MSNBC's Tim Russert and Brian Williams both asked tough questions of both candidates, really putting them on the spot.

I've only recently started watching MSNBC. It's far from a perfect news source, but I've already come to prefer it to CNN. (If I hear Wolf Blitzer say they've got "the best political team on television" one more time... I mean, what does that mean anyway? Most of the time they're just yakking about b.s. anyway, lol.)

I'm obviously biased, but this seemed like Obama's strongest performance to me. He appeared confident, in command of the issues, and clearly aware of the situation he is in and sufficiently posed to not be knocked off stride.

I checked out the New York Times debate analyzer, and Obama spoke for a total of 38 minutes, Hillary for 30, a dramatic reversal from two debates ago when she had a similiar advantage in speaking time.

Let's hope that in a week the campaign has reached a point where we can begin building unity in the Democratic Party. It's time.

And sometime early this morning, the one millionth contributor sent a donation to Obama's campaign. Wow.