Some - us among them - deemed it a victory for Hillary Clinton. But who did emerge triumphant from the first televised debate for Democratic presidential hopefuls, dubbed by one newspaper a 90-minute, eight-person "snipe-fest"?
If you haven't yet seen any of the footage on television, much is available on the web, for example a 13-minute section on MSNBC (clickable from the news report) in which the candidates discuss the vexed issue of Iraq, while CNN also has footage (again, linked in its news report).
The New York Times was also impressed by Ms Clinton, calling her "professorial and emphatic" in contrast to the "reserved and cautious" demeanour of her main rival, Barack Obama in the their first face-to-face debate.
An analysis in the Washington Post spread its praise further in hailing a "field of contenders that, by any historical measure, matches in quality any the party has offered in decades".
Six of the eight - Ms Clinton, Mr Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd - "showed themselves to be both substantive and direct", the paper said, contrasting this to the "counterpoint of left-wing ideas" from Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.
Tabloids in Ms Clinton's senatorial home ground of New York mainly focused on the differences shown between candidates.
"Debate features lots of talk about killing enemies, but few ideas of any substance," was the headline in the New York Daily News, which variously referred to the event as a "snipe-fest" and a "slap-fest".
The New York Post, meanwhile, stressed how Ms Clinton and Mr Obama "locked horns", dubbing the event "friendly fire".
