After watching my first full Democratic debate last night, I have a couple of thoughts:

Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee and probably the next president. As Jeffrey Toobin of CNN quipped last night, this debate was "Gladys Knight and the Pips." She was confident (perhaps a little too much at times), nuanced, moderate (with an eye toward the general election) and dare I say: presidential.

Obama did OK but this clearly is not a format that serves his conversational style well. Edwards is sinking--hey, did I mention my wife is Elizabeth? Biden strikes me as the grown-up in the room on foreign policy--even if he's like the uncle at the family reunion, ready to tell you what he really thinks after the third glass of wine. Dodd fades into the background. Gravel is angry. Kucinich is Kucinich. But then there's Bill Richardson...