My thoughts, again watching the vast majority of the debate and without reading any news reactions:
1. Williamson may be the first to drop out. Don't see her or Swalwell as legitimate options at all.
2. More one trick ponies tonight IMHO, including Yang with his $1000 per month plan, Gillebrand with eliminating corruption, and "pass the torch" Swalwell.
3. Funniest moment for me was Sanders claiming a mischaracterization and Maddow responding with "It's a quote."
4. Didn't like Gillebrand interrupting so much early on, but I understand that the format of the debate puts pressure on candidates like her.
5. Sanders seems like a repeat of 2016 Sanders. Yay for consistency but I really think his personal time has passed even if his ideas get adopted.
6. Biden did a pretty respectable job of defending his front runner position I thought. I thought he handled the Harris direct attack as well as other criticisms pretty well. I agree with the poster below who said he took credit for more in the Obama administration than he was likely responsible for, but many people do that when looking for a job so I personally fault him only somewhat for doing that.
7. Buttigeig continues to be thoughtful and articulate and composed. I appreciated his candor in his answers about the police shooting and his matter of fact defense against Swalwell's attack on that issue.
8. Harris seems like she should be a preacher rather than a President. This is probably a stylistic complaint, but it bothers me.
9. I agree with the kill switches on microphones for the moderators. I'd also support "you didn't answer the question, please answer the question" improvements somehow, although that might be a pipe dream. Finally, I'd support them using kill switches whenever they talk over each other, interrupt, or commandeer the conversation.
10. Maddow and Todd impressed me less than Guthrie, Holt, and the Telemundo guy. They didn't seem organized when they attempted to throw it to Lester Holt too early, and sometimes fumbled their questions a little bit. But it's mostly about the candidates.
11. I was surprised to hear Mitch McConnell's name mentioned so much last night and tonight. I would have expected more generic comments about taking back the Senate rather than his specific name. Maybe it helps engender support.
12. I feel badly for the candidates I forgot - they apparently didn't make enough of an impression on me. I guess that includes Bennet and Hickenlooper.
13. Surprised that there were several to many open seats in the audience during a portion of the debate. It was a small venue and I would have thought that the place would be packed. I don't draw any conclusions from this observation other than it was unexpected.
I like the DNC's plan to raise the bar to qualify for the next debate. I think it's got to be hard to manage to serve 20+ candidates at all, let alone in a reasonably fair way. I find it fascinating that I am already seeing comments out there about the DNC choosing a candidate for the Democrats. I understand the history and I certainly think the media personalities might advocate for candidates they personally like, but it seems too early to assert that this is going to happen. I guess it's a ghost of 2016 that they'll have to deal with somehow.