Apparently Hillary firmly put and Barack and John Edwards back in their place after some heated personal exchanges in their televised debate in Las Vegas last night.

But over on our side of the pond, the Lib Dem leadership Question Time special was much more civilised.

I keep reading that it was the pivotal moment for the contest, as most Lib Dem members would not receive much direct contact from the candidates so would use it to decide their vote when it arrives in next week’s post.

If that’s true, then it’s a shame, because in many ways it was just so much puff. On many things the two candidates agreed, and said so. This is hardly surprising - as one of them said (I think it was Chris) they are actually running for leader of the same party and it is scarcely surprising that they agree on most things. At different times I heard each of them make points that I had previously mainly associated with the other one. This clearly frustrated Mr David Dimbleby, who at one point shut down a discussion on tax on the grounds that they probably agreed (which they confirmed they thought they did).

Beyond the policy issues, some people seem to have got most excited about their appearance, with both Chris’ hair and Nick’s tie coming in for a pasting (personally I thought Chris’s tie was the oddest thing on the screen, but I promise you it is not going to be affecting my vote!)

Chris showed more passion in what he was saying and was more animated than I have often seem him in the past. That’s a good thing and he certainly came across much better as a result.

Nick did a good job, I thought, of conveying the depth of his experience despite his relative youth, in particular through his experience already of conducting international negotiations between governments, which I thought he put across powerfully.

But unsurprisingly almost everything that both candidates said, I agreed with - and indeed with one or two very specific exceptions that I have written about, for me there is very little to choose between the two on policy grounds (the idea that Chris Huhne, creator of a highly successful agency in the City, is some sort of leftie is nonsense!)

But the overwhelming impression to me from the evening was this.

When Chris spoke, I heard a good Liberal Democrat spokesman making familiar Liberal Democrat points - things I agreed with, but which too often we express in a funny kind of Liberal Democrat language that most normal voters simply don’t relate to - and which far too often they simply dismiss as a third-party spokesman making quaint third-party points, which might well be right, but don’t really seem to address the issues that really matter to them.

But when Nick spoke, I heard the same underlying values and policies there - but communicated in a way which is fresh and different, and in ways which normal voters can understand and relate to. He actually seems to be engaged in what actually affects people’s lives, and in the political discussions which most people want to have. His anger and passion about inequality and poverty, the children who don’t get any qualifications, and the people who die sooner, were great examples of that.

In a line, perhaps, Nick simply can’t be dismissed as the third-party spokesman making well-meaning third-party points: he actually comes across as a serious contender, voicing our beliefs in ways that mean things to those who are not already steeped in Liberal Democrat values.

And that’s the crunch for what I want from a future leader - this contest may be about appealing to members, but if the party is going to go where I want it to go in the future, then it is about conveying Liberal Democrat values to people who don’t yet vote Liberal Democrat.

I’ve said before that Chris is an enormous asset for the party: he has done a huge amount for the party, and will do much more. After this contest, and if he’s still speaking to me (!), then I look forward to working with him again in the future, as I have done on several things in the past, especially European matters.

But if the post we are trying to fill here is the Leader’s, then I simply think that Nick stands a head higher as the best next Leader of our party.