Is Cameron playing long in the TV debates?

• Did he set out last night deliberately to defuse Mandelson's line about him being 'nothing but a PR' by seeming less than great at PR, merely holding his ground?
• Did he decide deliberately to lower expectations early in the debate cycle in order to ratchet up the oomph over the series, peaking in the final debate and so capturing the media narrative just before the finishing line?
• Everyone knows Cameron is a very nifty and substantial debater and that last night was atypical, so was his appearing relatively poor in last night's PR-contest in fact a subtly smart PR strategy?

Clegg took it with populist, student's union debating tricks like riding the anger, listing the questioners at the end, talking to the camera. They achieved his objective of getting him a hearing.

Fraser Nelson is right - this was Clegg's finest hour but he has discharged all his single-use weapons. From now on, he will be playing with big boys who know that he has nothing so it's all downhill from here as Brown and Cameron demolish him. Substance? Nah. Clegg's standard LibDem match-day tactics make him, like Cable, potentially dangerous because they fool the gullible, but they do not make either of them heavyweights fit for government, although you might have to be an anorak to recognise LibDem mendacity behind their smoke and mirrors.

POGWAS. The country has already sacked Brown. He did well last night - by Labour standards but by no-one else's. He was (as advertised) smug, vain, pompous, vicious, weird and sinister, with occasional oily interludes. The complete voter turn-off.