It may seem overdone to find long-term significance in an event as ephemeral as a pre-primary debate - especially when there's another one in a little over two weeks. But two things emerged last night that have the potential over time to change the contours of the race.

The first was the emergence of John Edwards as a credible alternative to the two front-runners. One doesn't have to agree with his eloquent brand of outsider populism to understand that there is a vote in the Democratic primaries for it and that in a year of alienation, it has the potential to be considerable. Barack Obama is a credible alternative, albeit still a work in progress, but he's not a traditional liberal Democrat. Ironically, the continued viability of three candidates helps Hillary by splitting the anti-Clinton vote - though you still need 50% of the delegates to win, of course.

The second was Hillary's bad performance. Everyone has off days but this one was special, in that it revealed not a gaffe, which can be explained away, but a potential character flaw. "Wafflers" don't do well in presidential politics -- not only because voters don't like panderers -- but also because a waffler is perceived as someone not tough or honest enough for the presidency. One only has to remember some key ads from past presidential races - Nixon's windmill ad against McGovern or Dukakis's tumbler ad against Gephardt - to realize that the charge is a hard one to shake. It's going to be especially hard for Hillary because it plays into negative gender stereotypes, as unfair as they are. And, it cuts into one of her greatest assets - her intelligence - because she is now beginning to appear to be "too clever by half."

The press will run with this story for the next two weeks so Obama and Edwards don't have to worry about appearing too negative. In two weeks, in the next debate, we'll begin to see how both developments from last night have taken hold.

To read Steven Stark's complete "Presidential Tote Board" blog, go to www.thephoenix.com/toteboard/