She conceded.  Her closing riff was a concession.

Her last answer was great, but at this point Obama is clearly too good for her to beat.  The "Xerox" line was obviously stupid, though her closing answer does indicate that she's more likely to go out on a unifying note than on a divisive one.

Her closing was the best I've seen from her.

Mr. Crowley:

Can you give us a bit more context on that Wolfson quote? It doesn't make sense. She retook the reins of the race by shaking hands with Obama? (Also, doesn't that interpretation sort of spoil the magnanimity of the moment? Wolfson makes it sound as though she only shook Obama's hand so that she could pick his pocket.)

PS: There was a minor typo in the Ambinder quote you just put up ("Is Barack Obama ready to be commander in chief? Clearly -- the answer, for Clinton, is 'yes.'"). What he meant to say, obviously, is that Hillary should explicitly make the argument that Obama isn't ready, not that he is ready.

There's really no question about it. It was a concession that her candidacy is nearing the end. For more than a year she has been emphatic -- obnoxiously so -- that she was going to prevail. This evening, just before that last minute handshake (which was gracious, to be fair), she used the words, "no matter what happens..." That was a ginormous concession on her part to the idea that she might lose and I think it was very telling.

I revise my statement of a week or two ago -- now it's Wolfson playing Aguirre on the raft, declaring that Hillary is queen of El Dorado to a bunch of monkeys...

Hungarian Great Bela Tarr,

I like your name.

(and pccostello's one of the monkeys)

I don't know, CFK, I always thought of the monkeys as not buying Aguirre's line. Maybe I'm projecting...

Likewise, CFK. (And the Herzog reference as well.)

CFK: How many here (or anywhere) have actually seen Aguirre all the way to the end?

Who is the real Hillary Clinton?  Is it possible for her to get real?  What I saw last night was a performance by a woman who either doesn't know her true self or, to be more kind, is led to play multiple roles provided by Mark and Mandy and all the high paid consultants.  I think the real Hillary came through when she defended her plans for healthcare with genuine passion.  At the end I saw a woman who's not comfortable with the mix of positions she's taken on Iraq and that fake line about change by Xerox.  Her last plea was to have the people see the caring person she really may be, but I think it's too late.  Obama wins the debate by emphasizing her lack of leadership in voting to authorize the war.  

I saw Aguirre to the end, can't say that about the debate.

The pundits seemingly had Hillary Clinton’s plan all mapped out before last night’s debate. She has to go for the jugular, they said. This is one of her last chances to knock Barack Obama down off his pedestal, they claimed. Well, besides

PS- what was the deal with her rambling on about wounded soldiers hobbling through the door? That sounded so fake and insincere.