Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Forget about who won for a second.

What ideas was expressed tonight by a candidate surprised you, moved the national conversation in a different direction or struck you as particularly significant?

I did not expect such detailed, lengthy and substantial dialogues on reparations going into tonight's debate.

Buttigieg invoking the specter of a soldier dying in Afghanistan, who was born after 9/11--bracing.

So was imagining an end to that war as a top priority for taking office.

Sanders and Warren's lines that their more centrist opponents adopted "Republican talking points," by repetition, flipped a script on a debate format positioning them as extreme, putting their critics on the defensive.

Not a new idea, per se, but definitely new messaging there.

Surprised to hear nuclear first-strike policy receiving public airing -- and disagreement -- in a Democratic debate in the year 2019.

Who knew this was an area of live, passionate controversy in a post-Cold War race?

Assessing presidential debates is so much more interesting and fun when one abandons the horse race.

That's just me, riffing. What might I have missed?

Keep coming with the comments. They're great.