Post Debate Review: Barack Obama Finally Gets Good Debate Marks From Viewers

Senator Barack Obama finally impresed many undecided viewers of Monday's CNN sponsored Democratic debate that featured questions sent in by YouTube viewers to post debate questions. This is the first time in any recent Democratic presidential debate that Obama has really been able to convey a strong sense of being at ease, in grasp of the issues, and able to present a clearer vision of the future that conveys hope to voters for a real sense of change, and that Obama has the strengths required to be president. In previous debates he appeared both young, and with little real experience that seemed to fall flat compared to Hillary Clinton whose strength only seemed to grow with each debate.

A softer version of Hillary Clinton did not seem to convey as much strength to some voters to many as in previous debates in which she clearly blew the others off the stage with a very strong performance. While the tougher version of Hillary Clinton seemed to rub some viewers wrong in past debates, the overall impression is that many voters seem to like that toughness, almost like Margaret Thatcher's "Iron Lady" image as someone that they feel secure with. For a woman candidate that may be a very important image to cultivate.

John Edwards performance was not as great. He exhibited a little nervousness and was not quite as impressive as was really needed to break out from the pack. At times he and the other male candidates with the exception of Obama appeared to hang on to the podium for dear life, or else Edwards was seen to put his hands in his pockets. Edwards won't move up the ladder on either Clinton or Obama with this particular performance, which could have been a lot better.

For Obama, the good news is that his performance seemed to finally match his hype and excellent fundraising levels. It's about time. This is the type of Obama that the public expected from all the hope and the hype. And for Clinton, it will be back to the drawing board for more image retooling, to draw a happy medium between a more personable nature and that tough image that makes voters feel more secure for anyone with ambitions to be president.