Last night, I drew the short straw at Hot Air and watched the Democratic presidential debate, hosted by CNN in Las Vegas. As expected, the tenor of the debate turned into a parade of paeans to progressivism, although it did produce an unexpected defense of capitalism from Hillary Clinton, the only candidate to gainsay Bernie Sanders on the wonders of “democratic socialism.” That was among the very few surprises of the night, however, as the 90 minute crawled all too slowly.

The question that will most interest Hot Air readers is the biggest winner/loser awards, rather than a recap of the policy statements and arguments on stage. Most of them we already know, and most of them have no chance of ever being implemented. This is, after all, the agenda that has lost Democrats a staggering number of seats in state legislatures over the last seven years, as their party shifted sharply to the Left. One of the other surprises of the night was the fact that only Sanders seemed to recognize this, arguing for consensus action rather than diktats, at least in the context of gun control.

So let’s recap instead the winners and losers of the debate. Let’s start with the winners:

Hillary Clinton – I wrote that Hillary had to not lose this debate in order to win it, and she managed to do that. I also said that she had to attack the GOP more than her opponents on stage and shame them into turning their barrels towards Republicans, and on that point she scored a big win. Hillary even got Sanders to defend her on her e-mail scandal while Anderson Cooper kept reminding the audience that the FBI investigation could hardly be called a partisan witch hunt. (And then the Sanders campaign sent out a fundraising e-mail — bragging about his defense of Hillary!)

Was she a great debater? Not really, but she wasn’t bad, and that was all that was required tonight. She slipped several questions about her record, her political orientation (“I’m a progressive, but a progressive who gets things done”), and her flip-flops. The other candidates on stage only offered token attacks on Hillary, which gives a pretty clear picture of a field that’s not exactly out to beat her. The only truly bad answer she gave (again, apart from policy) was her response on not being a third Obama term. “Well, I’m a woman” was the worst answer of the five people on the stage, all of whom focused on policy rather than identity. She followed that up with a couple of other pleas for the XX test in this election cycle, all of which fell flat.

Still, overall, very few punches landed on Hillary, and she landed a couple of blows on Sanders before his e-mail defense. Overall, she had a good night.

Anderson Cooper: Conservatives predicted a softball debate without Jake Tapper in the center seat (actually, a separate podium), but Cooper proved his critics wrong right out of the chute. In what started to appear like five parallel interviews rather than a debate, Cooper hit every candidate on their weaknesses in the first round, and then stayed aggressive throughout the night. There is more to say about CNN’s performance, but I’ll tackle that in a separate post.

Martin O’Malley: Not everyone will agree with this, but I believe O’Malley raised his stature in the race with this debate. He made the best emotional connection with the audience, and he presented himself as a consistent progressive with actual accomplishments on his record. He might have been a little too soft-spoken on a stage with Sanders yelling every answer like Grandpa Simpson, but he used his time effectively. It may not change the race, but I’d bet it changes the calculation for the VP slot, or perhaps the Plan B issues if Team Hillary collapses later.

On that note especially, the losers:

Joe Biden: Biden’s absence turned out to be a big mistake if he wanted to get in this race. Hillary’s steady performance made him an afterthought, and O’Malley’s performance may have made Biden superfluous. Before the debate, the CNN panel claimed that Biden was haunting the event, but by the end, no one thought he had an opening to begin his own campaign.

Bernie Sanders: On this, I know I’ll get disagreement. Sanders may have won almost all the focus groups after the debate, but he got beaten up by both Hillary and O’Malley in the first part of the debate. His plea to work with the gun lobby for common-sense and consensus reforms fell on deaf ears on this stage, and Sanders ended up backpedaling from it in the end. On foreign policy, Sanders sounded lost, and at one point he ended up defending the status quo at the VA. The yelling act lost its charm almost immediately, and he ended up sounding (and acting) like the crazy uncle who shows up for Thanksgiving every year to rail about every crackpot conspiracy theory in existence.

Lincoln Chafee: There are bad debate performances … and then there’s Lincoln Chafee. Jim Webb looked a little lost at times on stage, although he had by far the best answers on foreign policy and national security, but Chafee spent all night looking as though he wandered onto the wrong stage. When challenged on his vote to repeal Glass-Steagall, Chafee blamed the death of his father and his lack of preparation and experience. Twice. Anderson Cooper couldn’t quite believe his ears, and neither could anyone else. If he’s still in the race by next week, chalk it up to the power of delusional thinking. Rhode Island voters must be wondering how they could have given Chafee the governor’s office for two terms after watching this sad and pathetic performance.

Bipartisanship and consensus governance: This actually died two deaths last night. Sanders tried to get people to talk with the “gun lobby,” and was derided, but the killing blow came from Hillary Clinton. When asked to name the enemy of which she was most proud, she offered a string of responses, but concluded, “Republicans.” So much for a progressive who wants to get things done!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m putting in for hazard pay and getting ready for a vacation to recover from this experience. (The latter is actually true — I’ll be gone from the 15th to the 27th. Maybe the other five Democratic debates can take place before I get back?)