What did you think of last night’s debates?

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

I was speaking at Rutgers University last night, so I missed ABC’s Democratic candidates debate. But judging from what I read this morning, it was a hot mess.

Lerone Wilson at Blackline compared the debate to an old Lakers game:

…in place of Kobe dazzling viewers with his superior ball control and perimeter shooting, only to feed it in to Shaq, I saw Charlie Gibson playing point guard to Hillary Clinton, who like Shaq, just stood around the basket waiting for the easy dunk.

Here’s Baratunde, aka Jack Turner, on Jack and Jill Politics:

Half of the debate. Half was entirely about bullshit the country has already processed and was more than ready to move beyond. I could barely contain myself, and I got even more frustrated when my fellow debate watchers weren’t ready to storm the place with me.

Here’s dnA’s take on Too Sense:

You know what would have made it clear that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton actually care about the issues facing American citizens? If one of them had taken just five seconds to stand up to the moderators and point out that they weren’t addressing the issues that are important to voters. But they didn’t, because they were too busy sitting there thinking about themselves and how to stay out of trouble or embarrass each other.

But my favorite commentary is this bit from Tom Shales’ column in The Washington Post:

At the end, Gibson pompously thanked the candidates — or was he really patting himself on the back? — for “what I think has been a fascinating debate.” He’s entitled to his opinion, but the most fascinating aspect was waiting to see how low he and Stephanopoulos would go, and then being appalled at the answer.

If you watched the debate, what did you think?