Tonight's PBS/BET didn't change my opinions of the candidates--it only reaffirmed them. Once again I found myself thinking that Hillary Clinton is on track to be the next president, and that Barack Obama is always slightly unsatisfying in the shadow of his amazing 2004 Democratic convention speech. There were some decently substantive conversations, and lots of "we need" to do this and "we must" do that--but virtually nothing new or surprising was said. One of the few things that sticks with me, in fact, was Mike Gravel's very interesting outrage over racial disparities in the war on drugs--and how little interest the other candidates had in siding with him. (Otherwise, Gravel continues to be contemptuous of his fellow Democrats in a way that makes me wonder how much longer he'll be included in these things.) A couple of other stray thoughts: --Someone needs to tell Chris Dodd to speak regular English; he's not on the Senate floor. Also, does he really support passing a law that would guarantee a right of return, with government assistance, to displaced Katrina refugees? (I noticed that Hillary dodged that question.) --I found Clinton impressive in several moments, but her fluency in talking about Darfur in particular underscored my sense that she's doing a great job with the can-a-woman-lead-the-military question. --Finally, midway through the debate Tavis Smiley had to cut short the candidates' response times, repeatedly saying how important it was to cover as many topics as possible. So why did he waste the first 15 minutes of a 90 minute event with a bunch of platitudinous stage-setting? Anyway, I blithely predict this debate is almost completely forgotten right away as we head into the pre-July 4 weekend, and everyone starts obsessing about the next round of fund-raising numbers. --Michael Crowley