CNN Democratic Debate

And so we have the first debate between just two candidates - Barack Obama faced off against Hillary Clinton last night in their first face-off debate. But before I start writing about what each candidate talked about and what the tone of the debate was like, I just wanted to take a moment to contrast this CNN Democratic debate in Los Angeles with the CNN Republican debate the night before at the Ronald Reagan library.

The opening of this debate was like a rally. Those spectators were pumped up, and there were a lot of them. The Republicans had quite a dry debate with Air Force One in the background, and there was some applause for certain lines but there wasn't anywhere near the opening atmosphere that this debate had. It seems there's significantly more excitement on the part of the Democrats than the Republicans - which bodes extremely well for the summer campaign.

The debate, therefore, was exactly the fire that was needed for this rally. Both parties' supporters can walk away from the debate tonight pumped about the Democrats opportunities in November. The candidates were nice to each other - so nice that the talking heads are back to talking about the Obama/Clinton/Obama/Clinton dream ticket. It didn't leave you as dispirited as the previous CNN debate where the two candidates destroyed each other. Makes you hopeful that the campaign can be much more positive as it continues and the Democrats can assume the kind of unity Republicans are renowned for but can't get together this cycle, and march on to an election victory with, in some ways, a sense of entitlement.

Obama's and Clinton's opening speeches were particularly welcome about how Democrats should be unified and everyone be friends. I'm also glad that they acknowledged John Edwards and his withdrawal. Notice that noone in the Republican field made any mention about Rudy Giuliani now that he has withdrawn.

There's no doubt that we're on the cusp of something historic. This debate showed that - a woman debating an African American, (and they're actually the front-runners and not Elizabeth Dole debating Alan Keyes), and hundreds of people in the audience going nuts for these candidates. It's so great to see social progress in the United States, and the glass ceiling being beaten.

There's definitely something more hopeful listening to the Democrats than the Republicans. I feel the Republican candidates are pretty dour about the world around them, whereas Clinton and Obama seem to recognise that there are serious problems, but they face those problems with hopefulness. Perhaps they feel the tide moving in their direction and that's why they're feeling so good.