Victory is in the eye of the beholder, but It seemed a clear win in every respect for Obama. Hillary had her moment at the end, but it was not the moment of a winner.  It was the moment of a resigned, gracious loser. It followed her taking punches on the "get real/Obama supporters are delusional" issue, the  plagiarism issue, and the Iraq vote judgment issue. She lost on all three. I saw that last moment as a sign of resignation that she simply cannot keep up. It showed a graciousness and humanity that reflects well on her, and I think the audience appreciated that. But I don’t see it as giving her any momentum coming out of this debate.

Obama has this halting way of speaking at the beginning of the debates that can be a little disconcerting, but he picks up steam and exudes a confident fluency as the debate proceeds. He ended very strong.  On the issues, it was a wash on Cuba, immigration, and the economy. He held his own on the health care. The main takeaway there is that he knows what he’s talking about, and that reasonable people can disagree about the best way to get to the goal of providing affordable healthcare for everyone.

At the end of the day, he’s the guy who can bridge the racial, regional, and religious breaches that causes such deep rifts in the culture today. He did a good job of looking ahead to the battle with McCain. I liked his line about the president having to me more assertive than has been typical for the last 20 years in reaching out in foreign relations to repair the damage done by Cheney/Bush.

Bottom line: He made no mistakes, and in this race did not give Clinton even the slightest, skinniest lane to pass.