jgw, there's no doubt that plasmas have a better overall picture...in a light controlled environment. I was watching Ocean's 13 last night on HD DVD and it looked amazing on my new Panasonic and my 3 year old Sharp LCD can't touch it. But, IMO, if you watch lots of TV during the daytime LCD remains in the mix for serious consideration. Newer Sharp, Sony, and Samsung LCD's look much better than my three year old 45" Sharp.
From my experiences I think the best looking LCD's are Samsung, Sony, and Sharp in that order. While a lot more expensive the new Samsung with LED backlights look great. I'm not saying don't buy a plasma but better black levels are useless if you can't see them.
At my local Fry's they have the newest Sharp 65" special edition LCD sitting next to the Panasonic 58" that I purchased. The Panasonic looked better but this was in a darkened room with little to no light reflections. Both sets were showing the same HD loop and appeared to be adjusted properly with no goofy looking color pushes and such. The black levels on the Panny was noticeable better than the Sharp but bright colors were similar. I could not detect any motion blur on the Sharp but no live sports were being shown although the HD loop did have several actions sequences from HD movies. Good luck with your purchase.