Official CNN South Carolina Debate Thread

[Politico]

Seriously, Gingrich better not screw this up.

And Santorum better not spend all his time attacking Gingrich. We already know Paul will, because he's basically just Romney's sidekick in these things at this point.

Yeah, Paul is Romney's Flava Flav. Notice that he's started wearing a giant nugget of gold on a chain around his neck and saying things like "yeaaah boyeee" after Romney speaks.

Guess who's who:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ose0R85rY4&feature=related

[Politico]

Guess who's who:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ose0R85rY4&feature=related

That 24 second video pretty much sums up the entire GOP campaign thus far.

Here's the extended version featuring a resurgent Newt Gingrich and conniving Sarah Palin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r94AJzJZZaU&feature=related

[Politico]

Guinness. Romney needs to crush Gingrich tonight, with Paul tag teaming him, and hope that Santorum follows suit.

[Politico]

Oh god damnit not more of this anthem bullsh**t

Have some pride, man.

[Politico]

What did Santorum just do?

A really good impression of Rick Perry.

[Politico]

The Republican Party is no longer the party of values if it nominates Newt Gingrich. Either his second ex-wife lied, or he said he wanted an "open marriage." He is not denying the latter. CNN ought to do their job and say, "did your second ex-wife lie? Are you accusing her of lying?"

[Politico]

I wonder if "get to the real issues" was Mitt's scripted response or if he audibled to that after Grinch killed it.

Romney Vs. Obama is about Obama and talking about real issues.

Gingrich Vs. Obama is about Gingrich and his graveyard of skeletons.

If people want to talk about real issues and get real issues fixed, Romney's the one.

[Politico]

Rick Santorum: Big Government Conservative?

He's a Big Government Democrat with socially conservative views.

[Politico]

I feel like Paul is going to rip Gingrich for draft deferments soon...

[Politico]

I think Gingrich is going to win South Carolina. By the time Super Tuesday is over with, he's going to wish he had just stayed down instead of getting back up.

[Politico]

SHAME ON YOU FOR BEING SUCCESSFUL, MITT. GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY. I DESERVE IT, NOT YOU. ARRRGGHHH 1%er ARRRRGHHH

[Politico]

Less then 40 minutes left and nothing that will overshadow Newt's opening answer.

The question that is going to be on everybody's mind after Newt's opening answer, "what other skeletons does this guy have?"

They're also going to wonder if he has an "open marriage" right now when you consider that Gingrich was the Speaker that went after Clinton over Lewinsky. Apparently Gingrich was just envious of Clinton?

Ron Paul put it best: "Serial hypocrisy"

[Politico]

CNN is going to be ripping Gingrich the next couple of days, and if he wins in South Carolina they're not going to spin it nicely for Gingrich.

[Politico]

I actually feel like Santorum is going to benefit the most from this. He was wise to always go after Romney and Gingrich at the same time. He needed that.

[Politico]

Are those just Paul supporters, or does the real crowd really want to hear more from Paul?

[Politico]

Why did Santorum think that was about him, anyway? Santorum was doing such a good job of ignoring Paul all night.

[Politico]

Paul lectures someone else on sensitivity while his supporters are shrieking when he doesn't get to answer an issue they don't even care about. You can't make it up!

Phil, I sincerely hope you do a good job of getting out the vote on Saturday. You should be very proud of your boy. I still disagree with Santorum on many issues, but I have gained a great deal of respect for him lately for sticking this out and coming this far. I thought he was a joke, but now I can understand why you appreciate him so finely and how he managed to win multiple races in Pennsylvania. He was obviously just unlucky to be running for re-election in 2006. Oh, and at this point he is the only viable alternative to Romney, IMHO.

[Politico]

Santorum A
Romney A
Gingrich A-
Paul B+

[Politico]

Just watching the highlight, Newt's momentum was stopped, by Santorum.

A default Romney win.

I tend to agree that Santorum is going to eat into Gingrich's numbers. He had his best debate ever. Romney did enough to keep his 30%. It'll probably go 30-25-25-20, or something like that.