Well...

That was certainly a rough and tumble debate. I think Time had it about right with this graphic:

I'm interested to see whether it did anyone any good, though. Many commentators seemed to think Edwards won the debate on points, but that's been the case in the past and he hasn't seemed to be able to convert those wins into votes. The squabbling between Hillary and Barack was off-putting at times, but I think Hillary had a point when late in the debate she pointed out that there are big stakes in this election, and the debate should be vigorous.

Given how tough she was on Barack early on in the debate, I think the Clinton campaign has pretty much given up on South Carolina. Her barbs were aimed at taking him down a notch around the country in the Feb. 5 states. But for all the fireworks (see the highlight reel below), I'm not sure anyone walked away from this debate with a clear win, nor did anyone lose. People saw the stylistic and some of the substantive differences between the candidates. For what it's worth, though, I'd like to point out at this point it's the media who keep bringing up the race and gender questions. Both Barack and Hillary effectively diffused those questions this evening and have done the same for the most part since the cease fire in advance of last week's Nevada debate.

On a related note, my mother and I were discussing Bill Clinton's various recent outbursts, whether they were on purpose, and whether they help Hillary. As much as reporters might like to believe otherwise, they seem to be working as intended (if they were in fact intended).