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It was historic, it was unprecedented, and actually it wasn't half bad.

This country's first Prime Ministerial debate defied the predictions of dullness and managed to deliver an interesting and relatively heavyweight encounter.

The consensus from polling and the papers suggests Nick Clegg was the winner.

And in a way I'm not that surprised at that.

Any Lib Dem leader tends to get less exposure than the other two main parties outside an election period.

And Nick Clegg is often drowned out by howls and heckles from both sides during Prime Minister's Questions.

So this may have been the first time a general TV audience would have had time to take a look at him.

And having met all three leaders, he is the most personable, and the most relaxed of them, and that showed on television.

But he did also show a sureness of touch.

He may have been helped by the fact that Gordon Brown decided to talk about what the two of them agreed about rather than about how they differed.

And of course although the polls suggest he won the debate, the initial ones I saw didn't ask people who they thought would make the best Prime Minister.

That's a different question that may or may not have elicited a different answer, and both David Cameron and Gordon Brown would think they'd poll better on that score.

But here's the critical question, what difference might last night's make in the the campaign in this region?

That's harder to discern, but it may have some impact.

Just imagine being a Lib Dem candidate or activist this morning.

You're bound to have a spring in your step.

The newspapers are all praising the performance of your leader, and you can go out on the doorstep and say, look, now you can see why we picked Nick Clegg as our leader, and why we offer something different.

We don't know how much impact that might have in tight contests in the City of Durham, Newcastle, Harrogate, Berwick, Westmorland and Lonsdale and Outer York, but it can't do any harm.

And so far the Lib Dems' poll rating has defied predictions of a third party squeeze.

But of course there are still two debates to go, and Nick Clegg will no longer be an unknown quantity in the next contest. His performance might not surprise people as much.

The message that he offers a different kind of politics does seem to resonate at a time which politicians' reputations are so sullied.

But there's time for both Cameron and Brown to adjust their tactics.

The last two debates are on different subjects too. Sky's focuses on foreign policy, something which may allow David Cameron to score some more hits against Gordon Brown over government support for the armed forces.

And the final ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ debate centres on the economy, a subject where Gordon Brown is probably at his best.

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