Who do you think won the CNN debate ?

[California8429]

Santorum and Gingrich.

But in other news, Romney came on top of Perry.

["'Oeps!' De blunders van Rick Perry Indicted"]

But in other news, Romney came on top of Perry.

Shameless bid for Karger voters.

[Sam Spade]

We need to wait and see a couple of weeks (at least) to see how all of these attacks on Perry fall out.  If they do raise doubts, then he'll move back to the pack, and we can re-examine.  Otherwise, he will have established himself as the definitive frontrunner (at least until we get closer to the actual elections).

Personally, I thought he appeared weak tonight.  But that's what primaries are for.

[Keystone Phil]

Thank you, Sam, for believing that Santorum won the debate.

[angus]

We need to wait and see a couple of weeks (at least) to see how all of these attacks on Perry fall out.  If they do raise doubts, then he'll move back to the pack, and we can re-examine.  Otherwise, he will have established himself as the definitive frontrunner (at least until we get closer to the actual elections).

Personally, I thought he appeared weak tonight.  But that's what primaries are for.

indecisive.  (which is like the plague to Republicans.)

But yeah, at the risk of sound indecisive, I also say we do need to wait to see how it plays out in TV land.

Still, frontrunner is such a lonely noun without an appositive.  Don't you think? 

[RI]

1. Bachmann - Did the most to help herself, although her attacks on Perry for the HPV mandate were rather irksome to me, at least. She's still crazy, but the base ate it up.

2. Santorum - Solid as usual

3. Gingrich - Same old Gingrich; solid on policy and attacked Obama as often as possible, but his aloofness reeks of resignation. I feel like he's the old guy who swears all the time and badmouths his wife because he doesn't care anymore. Might not be that far off....

4. Romney - Didn't do a whole lot to help or hurt himself

5. Paul - Decent answers, but his 9/11 answer sequence hurt pretty badly

6. Huntsman - Conservatives don't like him obviously, but his descent into petty attacks, including his idiotic "Perry is a traitor for not thinking we can secure the border" line, which felt very surreal, put him in Jump the Shark territory.

7. Perry - Battered all night from all angles. Made me like him more, but probably made conservatives dislike him more with his immigration and HPV answers. By the second half, he looked like he had given up and wanted to go home.

8. Cain - He's irrelevant at this point. I really wanted to post a "Nein! Nein! Nein!" Hitler graphic, but I couldn't find the one I was looking for.

[Averroës Nix]

Perry showed that he's not totally ready, but also not totally unprepared. (If he reaches the general, Obama won't be hammering him over Gardasil or immigration.) I was really surprised at how shaken he looked after Santorum and Bachmann hammered him over the vax issue, though.

Romney was unflappable and agile, but this was not his audience. (Whoever called him a "mirror image of Kerry" characterized him pretty well. Remember that Kerry was seen as having a very good chance of winning, and might have but for a few thousand votes in Ohio.)

The audience was... well, it would be unfair to blame them entirely for the weird tone of this debate. The loud applause for Cain, Bachmann, and Gingrich was undoubtedly a contributor, but Wolf Blitzer's moderating was very poor, and the debate was made very noisy by giving the third-tier candidates equal time. I would have preferred more of Romney and Perry. The debate was most interesting when these two confronted each other or the lower-tier candidates were attacking Perry.

I will say that while I disagreed with the sentiment behind the death penalty applause at the last debate, I was not offended. But the yells of "Let him die!" during Paul's answer concerning the "young man" without health care coverage were totally out of line. (Paul, like a good libertarian, pointed out that people should care about one another and take care of each other voluntarily - a position that I find impractical, but not morally objectionable, in contrast with the compassion-less individuals who were yelling.)

The others: Paul had some good moments, Gingrich was in his element, Cain didn't say anything worth listening to, Bachmann regained some tenaciousness but still seemed unimportant even when her attacks didn't, Huntsman's dropped his "civility" theme and become a hipster, and Santorum showed that Tea Partiers will applaud more loudly for a neoconservative than they will for a non-interventionist (Paul's rational approach to understanding Al Qaeda has not gained much traction in the Republican Party).

[Averroës Nix]

We need to wait and see a couple of weeks (at least) to see how all of these attacks on Perry fall out.  If they do raise doubts, then he'll move back to the pack, and we can re-examine.  Otherwise, he will have established himself as the definitive frontrunner (at least until we get closer to the actual elections).

Personally, I thought he appeared weak tonight.  But that's what primaries are for.

The vaccination attacks reminded me (and some of the commentators whom I follow on Twitter) of Hillary Clinton getting hammered over drivers licenses for illegal immigrants.

[Torie]

Mittens is doing what he needs to do to win the war.  The exact score in the battle is not so relevant. Mittens must be enjoying just letting Perry be Perry. He must be enjoying Perry sucking the oxygen out of the rest of the gang for the moment, and when that stops, it will way too late to bring the living dead back into animation. In some ways, Perry is a Godsend to Mittens. Among other things, he helps himself look moderate for general election purposes. How can a man look anything other than reassuring rather than some Tea Party firebrand,  when he is the guy who took one of those out, by just being reasonably composed, knowledgable, and well in tune with where the real playing field is, and what is realistic politically and otherwise, and what is not.

[Averroës Nix]

Mittens is doing what he needs to do to win the war.  The exact score in the battle is not so relevant. Mittens must be enjoying just letting Perry be Perry. He must be enjoying Perry sucking the oxygen out of the rest of the gang for the moment, and when that stops, it will way too late to bring the living dead back into animation. In some ways, Perry is a Godsend to Mittens. Among other things, he helps himself look moderate for general election purposes. How can a man look anything other than reassuring rather than some Tea Party firebrand,  when he is the guy who took one of those out, by just being reasonably composed, knowledgable, and well in tune with where the real playing field is, and what is realistic politically and otherwise, and what is not.

(emphasis added)

Without Perry, Romney is the frontrunner and Bachmann or Huntsman the most serious challenger. Romney might catch more flak from "the gang" at the debates, but I have a lot of difficulty imagining him losing the nomination in the absence of death, illness, or scandal.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I think Santorum won the debate tonight. He gave reasonable, well thought out answers that actually made sense. Romney did as well as he should, and Perry looked awful as usual. I wonder if this will reflect in his poll numbers of whether his voters couldn't care less about what he says.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

didn't watch, but sounds like from this thread it was a healthy debate.  if Perry is going to be the nominee, and I think he is, then he needs the experience of being attacked from all angles.

[Gustaf]

Where can I see the whole thing? Anyone got a link? I watched some excerpts of CNN but I want more...

[Franzl]

How many more of these "debates" are we going to be subjected to?

[anvi]

Got home late last night but watched some of the replay.  I thought Romney seemed very much in command.  Perry got knocked around a lot and looked flustered, even on policies he could have defended far better than he did.  Huntsman is quickly solidifying a status as one of those guys who would make an excellent executive but is an unappealing candidate (he sort of reminds me of Gore in this way).  As far as the rest of the field went, I thought that, last night, candidates and audience really brought out the worst in each other. 

[NHI]

Romney won. As for Rick Perry I can only say thank you, for his entrance into the race, I believe is making Mitt a better candidate and much stronger opponent against Obama.

[Simfan34]

Got home late last night but watched some of the replay.  I thought Romney seemed very much in command.  Perry got knocked around a lot and looked flustered, even on policies he could have defended far better than he did.  Huntsman is quickly solidifying a status as one of those guys who would make an excellent executive but is an unappealing candidate (he sort of reminds me of Gore in this way).  As far as the rest of the field went, I thought that, last night, candidates and audience really brought out the worst in each other. 

But Gore won.

[nhmagic]

Romney won. As for Rick Perry I can only say thank you, for his entrance into the race, I believe is making Mitt a better candidate and much stronger opponent against Obama.

Indeed!

[stegosaurus]

So, I went back and rewatched the debate on my DVR and caught something that I managed to miss completely the first time. Did anyone else catch Huntsman's completely awkward Kurt Cobain reference? He said something along the lines of: "In Gov. Romney's book 'No Apology', I don't know if that was written by Kurt Cobain or not.....".  Word of advice: If you're trying to avoid looking like a square, referencing a band who sold millions of records 20 years ago is a poor way to go about it.

Also, I hadn't given it much thought, but doesn't Cain's "9-9-9 plan" seem oddly reminiscent of Dominos "5-5-5 deal"?

[angus]

So, I went back and rewatched the debate on my DVR and caught something that I managed to miss completely the first time. Did anyone else catch Huntsman's completely awkward Kurt Cobain reference? He said something along the lines of: "In Gov. Romney's book 'No Apology', I don't know if that was written by Kurt Cobain or not.....".  Word of advice: If you're trying to avoid looking like a square, referencing a band who sold millions of records 20 years ago is a poor way to go about it.

Also, I hadn't given it much thought, but doesn't Cain's "9-9-9 plan" seem oddly reminiscent of Dominos "5-5-5 deal"?

yeah, we caught it.  I posted "All Apologies" in the debate thread at the time.  There's nothing wrong with referencing a song, or any item of popular culture.  But "No Apology" is a book by Mitt Romney, not a song by Nirvana.  He confused the titles.  That's probably why you missed it last night.

And yes, the Godfather's plan sounding like the Dominos deal was remarked on as well. 

[Bull Moose Base]

Seemed to me like it went exactly according to Romney's strategy that his people telegraphed: let the more desperate rivals do the dirty work of dinging Perry for him.  Bachmann, Santorum and even Palin in the sidelines on a cast got in on the act and landed punches.   And Romney's the only real beneficiary.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

So, I went back and rewatched the debate on my DVR and caught something that I managed to miss completely the first time. Did anyone else catch Huntsman's completely awkward Kurt Cobain reference? He said something along the lines of: "In Gov. Romney's book 'No Apology', I don't know if that was written by Kurt Cobain or not.....".  Word of advice: If you're trying to avoid looking like a square, referencing a band who sold millions of records 20 years ago is a poor way to go about it.

Also, I hadn't given it much thought, but doesn't Cain's "9-9-9 plan" seem oddly reminiscent of Dominos "5-5-5 deal"?

yeah, we caught it.  I posted "All Apologies" in the debate thread at the time.  There's nothing wrong with referencing a song, or any item of popular culture.  But "No Apology" is a book by Mitt Romney, not a song by Nirvana.  He confused the titles.  That's probably why you missed it last night.

And yes, the Godfather's plan sounding like the Dominos deal was remarked on as well. 

Last night I read an article that gave the candidates Nirvana theme songs:

Perry: “Territorial Pissings”
Romney: “The Man Who Sold the World”
Bachmann: “About a Girl”
Huntsman: “All Apologies”
Ron Paul: “You Know You’re Right” and/or “Come As You Are”
Cain: "Big Cheese"
Gingrich: “Big Long Now”
Santorum: “Jesus (Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam)”

Yes, two of those are covers, but still.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Last night I read an article that gave the candidates Nirvana theme songs:

Perry: “Territorial Pissings”
Romney: “The Man Who Sold the World”
Bachmann: “About a Girl”
Huntsman: “All Apologies”
Ron Paul: “You Know You’re Right” and/or “Come As You Are”
Cain: "Big Cheese"
Gingrich: “Big Long Now”
Santorum: “Jesus (Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam)”

Yes, two of those are covers, but still.

no Smells Like Teen Spirit?...and the only other song of theirs I have heard of is Come as You Are, so this makes about as much sense to me as crap rolling sideways along the side of a hill

[angus]

Last night I read an article that gave the candidates Nirvana theme songs:

Perry: “Territorial Pissings”
Romney: “The Man Who Sold the World”
Bachmann: “About a Girl”
Huntsman: “All Apologies”
Ron Paul: “You Know You’re Right” and/or “Come As You Are”
Cain: "Big Cheese"
Gingrich: “Big Long Now”
Santorum: “Jesus (Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam)”

Cute.  Primus works well also: 


Perry:  Golden Boy
Romney:  The Return Of Sathington Willoughby
Bachmann:  Wynona's Big Brown Beaver
Huntsman:  Is it Luck?
Ron Paul:  Mr. Knowitall  
Cain:  Seas of Cheese
Gingrich:  My name is Mud
Santorum:  Scissor Man

Wolf Blitzer:  The Pressman

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

First to Last

Santorum-A-First (and probaly only) win. He answered questions well and was right on most issue's, except Foreign Policy. Didnt whine, and got a decent load of questions.

Romney-B+-Did ok, another win against Perry and I think he can retake the lead. He was humorous, good spirited, but went on the offensive, and caught Perry off guard.

Gingrich-B-Is doing better, didnt go after the media, played the veteran and grandfather cards well, and over all is charismatic. He had 6 supporters their, but he managed to get the whole place chanting his name. Hopefully polls will reflect this.

Bachmann-B-Bit Perry pretty hard on the vaccine issue, if it is true, she can expect a boost in the polls. She seemed more sane, and performed fairly well.

Paul-C+-Was right on everything, but he botched the 9/11 question. He didnt answer fast enough, and just wasn't asked the right questions. He will do better next time

Perry-D-Not good. He losses steam early on, stutters, stumbles, and is just wrong and hypocritical.

Cain-D-I think he was not asked enough to make judgement. He lost steam, his campaign is imploding, which I didnt think would happen. He will drop out after Iowa.

Huntsman-F-Wah-Wah-Wah...Not good. His jokes were not funny, and he was asked more questions then needed. Just sucked. He was asking to be VP by attacking everyone slowly but surely, and on a equall basis.

Roemor and Johnson should of been their. The debates should be streamlined slowly around December, where only Romney, Paul, Perry, and Bachmann can attend.