The debate post mortems have been interesting to look at, because the near universal feeling is that Obama did not have a great debate because of the focus on negative stories that have hit him, like Rev. Wright and Obama's "bitter" comments.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was finally forced to say "yes, yes, yes" that Obama could win in November, even though she constantly argues that she will have the better chance against John McCain.

The ABC moderators definitely helped Clinton by focusing on stories that left Obama struggling a bit in the early part of the debate.  He better get used to questions about Rev. Wright and the "bitter" comments, because they will be back before November if Obama is the Democratic nominee.

"If it's not this, it will be something else," Obama said of the Wright story.

I'd bet that a lot of people see an unapologetic Obama on some of these issues, because he likes to talk about how we need to move the political process to a higher plane and not focus on stuff like Rev. Wright, "bitter" and why Obama doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin.

Part of me wonders if the ABC News folks were trying to push back against talk of a media bias in favor of Obama, (so artfully discussed by Saturday Night Live) and that's why they went after him a bit more than Hillary.

In a sense, Obama was a bit off message in this debate, which is how he's been ever since his "bitter" comments emerged last Friday.

Clinton though didn't seem to be a big winner or anything though, as she had to grit her teeth on the ole Bosnia-sniper fire story, admitting "I have a lot of baggage, and everyone has rummaged through it for years."

So, who won?

Obama didn't win, but did Hillary?  She didn't have any big zingers.  

Maybe the real winner was John McCain, as the Democrats continue to beat on each other, letting McCain fine tune his campaign for when he really needs to get cracking.