Field Notes From the Democratic Debate

I'm not exactly live-blogging this turkey, but I'm watching intermittently. Some thoughts and observations about what I've seen so far.

• Campbell Brown is a sweet kid, but she's not about to lose any Connecticut or Chappaqua dinner invitations over the tough questions she tossed Hillary's way.
• Hillary has a giant head. And it's amplified by makeup. I've got a fat nut myself, so I'm not going to knock her too hard. But damn. Look at that thing.
  
• Why do all of the "undecided voters" seem like people who are jonesing for more and bigger handouts - in other words, lefties who can't decide who will give them more? What about the centrists who want to hear a strong Democrat? How will you contain Iraq? How will you grow the economy and create jobs? I guess those are wacky right-wing concerns.
• I want to like Obama more. But he comes off as humorless at times.
• One of the "undecideds" actually asked a good question about unifying national opinion behind our foreign policy. It seems like a pipe dream to imagine that we might ever be at a point where our disagreements end at the water's edge. Good answers were given by Obama and Biden - but the fact that Hillary would be almost staggeringly polarizing is undeniable.

Update: Word on the street is that Hillary's campaign thought Wolf Blitzer did an "outstanding" job. In other words, play along and do not dare ask hard-hitting questions like Tim Russert, or you will be demonized relentlessly and blacklisted. This campaign may be the final nail in the coffin of the myth of independent, objective journalism.