Electablog* has a good assessment of Senator John Edwards:
Edwards, if anything, hurt himself during the debate. He is, as I’ve discussed here, remarkable on the stump. Less so during debates (except for those times when he can verbally work his way back into that stump-speech script). The guy simply makes a better lawyer than a defendant.
Much of the evening’s focus was on who between Kerry and Edwards is more electable in more states. Differences were established in the areas of trade, the death penalty and lobbyist’s donations. Kerry often brought things back to Vietnam while Edwards continued to focus on the Mill closing of his childhood (at this point I’ve never been so depressed about a company shutting its doors and I’m not even entirely sure what happens at a mill).