Watchiing this debate, I was struck truly by how far the Democratic Party has inexorably lurched leftward. The laundry list of liberalism is a long one, and during the past three debates these two candidates have been ringing up the cash register.

Bought more house than you can afford? No problem, we're going to freeze interest rates (have these two lawyers never heard of contract law?); college too expensive? We'll pay your way; can't afford health insurance? We'll tax the rich to cover you and your dependents. Since Hillary and Obama are cut from the same ideological cloth of liberalism, I don't see how the Democratic nominee is going to be able to perform the classic political maneuver of "tacking back towards the center" for the general election. In order to appease the left wing proclivities of their party's primary voters, they both had made far too many outlandish promises and big-government policy prescriptions to credibly move towards the center.

Obama's attempt to deflect the "liberal" label was clever, but in the end will prove to be ineffectual. "If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck…" If he doesn't like being tagged with what he suggests is the artificial label of "liberal", how about categorizing him as far-left or a Scandinavian Socialist? …A statist?

Both candidates were caught equivocating on NAFTA. The promise to opt-out of the trade agreement was pure pandering to the economic concerns of Ohio voters.

Throughout the debate she looked aggrieved, angry, and her by now trademark cackle couldn't disguise her visible feelings of bitterness. Hardly the stuff of which future presidents are made.

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell suggested that Hillary still has a great political future ahead of her.

I have never seen Obama look so ruffled as when Tim Russert asked him about the "endorsement" of Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan, as well as his pastor who seems to share some of Farrakhan's world-view. Clearly this was a most uncomfortable moment for Obama, and it showed. We'll be hearing more about this down the road…

Obama, once again, deftly whacked Hillary in the back of her head with a 2x4 called " I am going to have it both ways on my Iraq War vote." His driving a bus into the ditch paraphrase was a devastating rejoinder to Hillary's claim to be ready on day one to be commander in chief. He clearly exposed her duplicitous nature and judgment on this issue, and for Hillary, there was no escape. She can recite her tiresome, and by now hackneyed phrase, "If we had known then what we know now…  All to no avail: The chickens have finally come home to roost for her politically expedient war vote.

Obama’s fruitless attempt to weasel out of his earlier pledge for public financing of his campaign only insures that the issue will be revisited by McCain.

Hillary looked almost ashen when asked by Russert why she won't release her tax returns. It was her deer-in-the-headlights moment. LIke her claim about releasing her White House records from the Archives, her response was evasive, defensive, and in my opinion, there wasn't a soul who was watching the debate who believed a word she said. Ditto for her answer as to her earlier Senatorial pledge to create 200,000 new jobs for New York State. Her response? Her promise was predicated on an Al Gore presidency.

Wow…

My scorecard? Obama’s even-tempered performance made him appear more “presidential” than Hillary. As such, I would give him the slight edge. The problem for HIllary is she needed a knockout blow.