WASHINGTON (CNN) -- How does CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider describe the candidates' performances at the debate? Cautious.

"There was one point where I thought that Sen. Clinton was too cautious when asked about Rudy Giuliani's comments that the country wouldn't be safe under Democrats," he said. "That would have been a great opportunity for her to show outrage and anger over the use of the tactics that were used by the Republicans in 2004, and she didn't do that. I think that would have been a good moment."

Although they were cautious, some of the candidates still said they would be willing to use force if necessary.

"Well, the Democrats, they could have been vulnerable on the issue of use of force, but they made a clear distinction between being against the Iraq war and being anti-war," Schneider said. "Clinton said that if the United States suffered from another terrorist attack, she promised to retaliate as soon as we found out who was responsible for the attack and drew a distinction between the war in Afghanistan, which she said she supported, and the war in Iraq. That's a very strong and effective answer where the Democrats may have been vulnerable had they appeared to be against the use of force."