I too, thought the debate was excellent and think it's obvious that Nick Clegg has benefited from being seen on an equal footing with his rivals. If the result of the forthcoming election is a hung parliament, I believe it could be a good thing! If the Lib-Dems are in a position to do a deal, it seems to me that their natural allies would be Labour. Gordon Brown is now committed to constitutional reform and this is something the Lib-Dems yearn for and I'm sure would be top of their wish list in any power broking situation. However, if the Tories emerge as the largest party, I can't see DavCam&Co going for it... but never underestimate the machinations of the Tories when they're trying to get their sweaty palms back on the levers of power!!

Cameron and Clegg are clearly strong TV performers, its what they do day in day out, but we need someone who can deal with the big economic issues that face the country not scoring political points on national television.

Clegg was best but Cameron was def the worst.

I cannot believe the general consensus that Nick Clegg was the clear winner in the debate. To me, he just seemed to be trying to hard and therefore was not natural. He was over animated, his body language was at times sloppy (hand in pocket) and to be frank after 60 minutes the timbre/tone of his voice began to grate. Personally I had Mr Clegg dead last.

listening to the view of listeners and watchers on the world service they seemed to think that Brown was a clear winner - appearing, surprisingly human and the only one of the candidates to make the audience laugh

So personality politics arrives in the UK from across the Atlantic.
As differences between the parties have been eroded, the personality of the leaders (& wives) naturally comes to the fore as a means of differentiating. You have to differentiate somehow. Personality politics therefore is a feature of politocracy.

http://reflectionsondemocracy.wordpress.com/

Brown was excellent. Clegg wasnt bad either. Cameron was ridiculous. I wonder how many people's votes will change on the back of the debate.

One has been, one who will never be and one wants to be. Clegg could not loose all he could say was I disagree with the others ,all Brown could do was fawn over Clegg for me Cameron was the best of a load of rubbish. Surely people will not be swayed by such a pathetic event all done by and for the media this country is in a very sad state bankrupt, with little or no manufacturing left all our reserves sold off, a disasterous legacy for our children and we fought two world wars for this , thank you Gorden Brown and as the famous saying goes will the last man leaving turn the lights out they are already on dim

The whole thing was too much of a set piece for my liking.Clegg was in the best position to win the debate and he did so .Brown wasn't held to account enough for the last thirteen years of disaster.Cameron did OK but would havedone better if he'd made more of Brown's awful record.My vote will go to Cameron because he has the best policies.However,none of them go anywhere near far enough for me on immigration,repatriation,crimeor standards in public life.

The absence of Paxman, Wark, Humphries et al was the biggest revelation for me. Unimpeded by big-ego presenters trying to trip them up over trivia and prevent them at all costs from stating their case, we finally heard what the politicans had to say - and I think all of them came across pretty well.

I have never been a fan of the old socialists but new labour is closer to the middle of the road and whereas I would noy previously have voted for labour I would vote for Gordon Brown as he seems to be the only one with fire in his belly. Who cares if he is bad tempered. It shows he really cares.Although the current financial crisis happened on his watch all the other world leaders made the same mistakes. So what we needed is someone with the courage and experience to salvage the economy and Gordon Brown has that. He is not perfect but he is honest and a devout politician and I like his sometimes grumpy style rather than the soft polished style of the other contenders.