Talk Elections

Tonight at 9pm on Fox News Channel:

http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/16528818/gop-debate

Tonight the other four candidates need to somehow trick Mitt Romney into admitting that he's been carrying on a decade-long gay affair.

Damn, my secret is out!

How many times will Paul's racist news letters ("National Hate Whitey Day") come up?

Another ing debate?

In this thread TheDeadFlagBlues has confirmed his status as one of our best posters. :D

This is Santorums last chance...

And Newt's

Crowd is loud. That's never good.

Stream link?

http://live.foxnews.com/ is not working for me

Was Paul booed? Is that possible?!?!?

Why are they placed in order of hair color?

Is anyone else having problems with the internet stream? Mine won't load.

Nor will mine. :(

Yeah.

So only Democrats are allowed to ask questions?

Well I guess over half the forum won't be able to watch unless Fox gets its act together.

Mine either. Their last debate stream kept crashing my web browser and now they can't even get a running stream for this one?

Fox sucks

I found a place with it:

http://www.therightscoop.com/9pm-watch-gop-fox-news-debate/

Scholarly post

Reducing taxes 19 times? Sounds false....

So...crowd pro-Romney?

I'm pretty convinced that Fox News is shilling for Romney right now.

Well he raised "Fees" a whole lot more than that.

"Brett, we're gonna have to give me a little more time than that."

Romney is such an asshole.

Perry going after Romney for not releasing tax returns...nice.

Is this thing a debate or a coronation?

The crowd seemed to agree with Rick. Surprising.

This guy is such a child.

"I need a little more time than that..."

"Well, thirty seconds now and later..."

"No, I'll take more time..."


This is how a spoiled child acts.

Wow... Mitt, that's a dodge, lol

It will be interesting to see if Obama makes this an issue

Mitt must get his way and if he doesn't, well, it's time for Jedi Mind Tricks. "Ok, I'll just keep saying it and Brett will agree."

Uh, Obama doesn't have a jobs plan? Can Mitt get through a single answer without blatantly lying?

Paul really hates Santorum.

"President Obama has never released a job's plan"

How in the hell can Romney get away with this kind of lie? This is absurd.

Paul's refusal to hit Romney on issues makes him the most intellectually dishonest person on that stage

Paul goes after Santorum again and flies the idiot flag.

And Saintly Rick accusses RP of being left-wing.

I shouted when Romney said that... my office door is shut... but it was heard, lol.

Paul is fiesty tonight.

This fox/twitter vote thing is a complete joke. Everyone is voting on the candidates when they're not talking, and then they'll be citing this during post-debate the whole time..


sigh...idiots

I don't see so. Romney's record is simply not as bad (or dangerous) as Santorum's.

At least Santorum admits to his flip-flops...

Romney is already acting like an insufferable privileged dick and he hasn't got the nomination yet. Imagine how bad he will be by the summer.

Ron Paul is one of the saddest, childish trolls in the history of life.

Romney would explode the military budget, and Paul has never criticized him for it. I like Paul, but he's just as intellectually dishonest and hypocritical as the rest of them.

hahahaha romney evades. GO SANTORUM

Get him, Rick!

"I'll do it in the order that I want to do."

Geez, he is cocky tonight.

Romney is such an ass. Wow.

Good, Romney is looking weak tonight.

I was also yelling at the tv. I can't stand this slimeball. He never answers questions directly and will do everything in his power to evade standing by his record.

Santorum burning Romney

Santorum ate his Wheaties today

SANTORUM SHUTTING DOWN THE MITTBOT LOL

"I'll do it in the order I want it to do"

piece of sh!t. piece of sh!t.

Santorum is DESTROYING Romney. DESTROYING HIM. This is amazing.

You're going down tonight, Mitt.

Gotta say, I'm loving Santorum here.

Romney is being slapped around... it's fun.

This is the "take down Romney" debate...

Go Saintly Rick!

Romney is looking weak in front of Santorum :\

Romney is doing awfull tonight. Kudos to you Santorum, as dangerous as you are ;)

I would be very proud to vote for Santorum

Never thought I'd say this, but Go Santorum!!!

What has this forum come to, when people are unanimously cheering Santorum? :P

Romney finally getting skewered. Love it.

YES! Go get him Rick!

Current Rankings:

1. Santorum
2. Perry
3. Paul
4. Gingrich
5. Romney

Sorry I couldn't respond as quickly, guys. I just watched someone get their ass kicked on a debate stage.

Mitt, you've been owned. I love my candidate.

What a weird thing to trap Romney on.

That was a very well-planned attack by Santorum.  Romney should have really been better prepared for it.

Twitter is calling out Romney for his #dodge
http://live.foxnews.com/

Santorum out-lawyered the MBA (or whatever Romney studied). Beautiful stuff.

Fox panelists are Romney hacks.

BTW... did Romney call Santorum out for serving the interests of his constituents over his ideology? lol

Congratulations, Phil.

yeah, pretty disgusting stuff.

A really crappy response from Romney, but apparently the talking heads think it won't hurt him. Anyways I think it would be good if Romney loses this debate and someone else wins SC. I don't want a coronation.

Aren't beaches pretty much the same everywhere?

Santorum, who apparently has no problem with violent criminals especially if they are African-American (FYI: That's all that audience heard in that little exchange), never got the memo that Romney was Governor of Massachusetts, not the Mussolini of Massachusetts?

The word has come down from on high...time to get in line

That was very good on frothys part. It was the best debate performance so far in this race.

If there's another hour of this, it's going to be great!

This is gonna be good.

You can here the WSJ moderator sighing whenever a anti Romney question is asked.

"I've always opposed gay marriage." - Mitt Romney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI)

There's hypocrisy coming from all sides.

"I've always opposed gay marriage"
"I believe in equal rights for people"

Lied, and then flip-flopped in the same sentence.

One of the most interesting crosstabs I saw was from PPP. It showed that Fox News viewers supported Romney by a 20 point margin in Iowa. I'll try to find it but that has me convinced that Fox News is on a mission to nominate Romney.

Romney could have just flat out said he won't change his views because he doesn't want a primary challenge in 2016.

lol, Romney is completely lying about the flip-flop issue.

South Carolina is at war with us again?

SC has an immigration law?

Yep.

I would like to see someone ask Perry why in Texas you can use a gun license as ID to vote, but not a student ID.

Perry is now my second choice behind Paul. He is the strongest supporter besides Paul for States Rights. He is doing very well tonight.

Supporting gay rights does not equal supporting gay marriage. Just ask Ron Paul.

Yes he wanted to swindle Massachusetts voters into electing him. But he won't ever admit that.

Rick Perry thinks it's 1860 apparently. #historyjokes

South Carolina is fighting a war with the federal union? Interesting.

Perry had a strong answer there.

Perry refers back to the religion issue.

Updated Rankings:

1. Santorum
2. Paul
3. Perry
4. Gingrich
5. Romney

Not the first time...

Newtie and Paul aren't getting enough time.

Santorum: If it benefeits the economy, STATES RIGHTS!
If it involves the gayz, KILL DA STATES!

Santorum entering Gingrich territory with the Welfare answer.

Oh come now. We both know why.

Santorum's answer isn't that great on unemployment.

Both of these.

That's pretty much what the whole gay rights movement is about.

So you have to be trained to wash dishes?

I know it's cliche to bash Republicans for being Republicans during a Republican debate but these guys are clueless on unemployment.

FINALLY! A fun debate. Where have you guys been for the last month?!

Tell me about it.

Gov. Romney and Rep. Paul are the only serious candidates. Paul has some out-there ideas, but he's an intelligent man who nobody doubts supports free enterprise. I am not sure I can say that about Gingrich, Santorum and Perry.

I hope somebody brings up Romney's support for the bailouts here.

I'd give Perry some more credit, but otherwise your right.

Romney does realize China bails us out every day right?

Just because Paul sucks Romney off doesn't make him a serious candidate.

So we have Gingrich and Romney flat-out lying...

Please, oh please let Ron Paul bring up Romney's support for the bailouts.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long night for Mitt.

This panel is doing everything in their power to avoid conflict between the other candidates and Romney.

Are they booing Paul?

Ron Paul absolutely manhandling this question.

It was also about being able to be sitting in a bar without the police coming in and beating you up...

The hell.

I wanna punch Gerald Seib in the face.

Well he somewhat rebounded with that answer on the economy, so it won't be a total disaster of a night.

This entire field of candidates is laughable.

Perry seems like a nice guy, but I am not sure he's intelligent. I suspect he is of average or slightly above average intelligence. Also, his comments about "vulture capitalism" are completely out of line.

GREAT answer by Paul.

Paul dropped the military-industrial complex. Here we go.

Pauls creeping up on Santorum for best debate performance so far in the race. Close, but no cigar :(

Eisenhower namecheck! Hooray!

Anyone hear a troll screaming right now?

I was born 20 years too late.

The panel is getting owned by Paul.

Oooooh Paul avoiding the question on the military.... wait... attention Paultards..."we'd have more bases here".

That was an idiotic answer by Paul regardless of what his cult thinks.

And spreading lots of nasty diseases that other people can pay for with regards to treatment.

Silly Ron Paul

Republicans have always been hypocrites when it comes to spending. They can spend like Democrats, just on different things

Updated Debate Rankings:

1. Paul
2. Santorum
3. Perry
4. Gingrich
5. Romney

Paul: 0% INCOME TAX!

Delusions everywhere up in this debate.  

Now he's going on about inflation and the Fed. God I hate him.

A 0% income tax?

Yeah, I'm sure they were all doing it deliberately.

Paul is clearly pro-defense, but anti-interventionism.

So it's only gay people that spread disease through promiscuous sex... k.

WHERE'S ROMNEY'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!!!!

Weak weak Romney answer on tax returns.

Gaetan Dugas did a good job of it. He probably killed more people than the most prolific serial killers in history.

Wow, booing just the mention of the word Mexico.

The GOP really doesn't want to exist in a generation does it?

Romney's booed on having family in Mexico? Seriously people?

They're all shocking and irresponsible answers.... it doesn't matter what works, what matters is how they think it SHOULD work... sick.

Romney just gets worse and worse...

Romney is what he hates.

Mitt Romney is going to be ravaged because of these immigration answers this fall.

They were booing the question, not being Mexican.

It's such a shame that anyone has ever moved to America from anywhere, ever. We should boo anyone whose ancestors were born outside America.

and we wonder why Hispanics don't like us anymore....

Wait... I'm about a minute behind!!!!

I think they were booing the leading question, not because of Romney's Mexican ancestry.

So because one guy did it, they all did it and that's the face of their movement.  ...Right.

Illegal immigrants cannot vote. Legal immigrants support legal immigration, not illegal immigration.

He's got to be lying. Why would Obama tell black girls not to get married?

Nice answer by Santorum.

Oh God... economic success through social engineering...

I know I am going to be in trouble for this one....But I think Santorum should start basing his policies off American law, not Vatican law. He is basing everything off the "family".

Hey, is it still true that cocaine laws are still much tougher than heroin laws on the federal level anyone?

Ron Paul swings between sanity and extreme crackpottery.

I know what it was all about. It was about treating sex like fast food. Go read "And the Band Played On," a book about the era written by a gay journalist.

Fighting unwed teenage pregnancy has nothing to do with the Vatican.

I doubt MLK would be on Paul's side after reading those letters.

Rick Mussolini is never going to come close to influencing America law again, so don't sweat it.

LOL Asking for a job instead of foodstamps is INSULTING to African Americans. Sure Juan

...what American law is Santorum's view contradicting?

Please, children and supporters of the childish candidate: don't post here anymore.

He sure as hell wouldnt be on anyone elses side....I think ALL of them should quit invoking his name; MLK would be a HUGE Obama backer. And I wouldnt blame him, seeing his views and life right up to his killing.

Santorum is off-track here... he's fine with telling girls to not have sex and make sure to get married.... but doesn't want Government telling them what the 'right' thing is...

He really does sicken me... the Obama policy doesn't stop them talking about it... it stops them ONLY preaching abstinence.


Wow... Paul is speaking for MLK...

Supporters of the uber rich white candidate acting racist. Shocking!

Phil; Im not the most loved person here, but get off your high horse, neither are you.

I still don't see how this relates to asking for the same marriage rights as straight people.

So elities don't like making money? Total lie. Newtie deserves these boos.

LOL! Newt doubles-down on the pro-child labor rant

Gingrich just STFU already.

Crowd about to lynch Juan Williams.

[/racial reference]

I usually like Juan, but Newt put him in his place. Newts still wrong, ofcourse ;)

Gingrich gets standing ovation.

Insisting that African Americans don't want jobs, but would rather have Food Stamps IS Insulting and Racist.

Here I am yelling at the tv again. Really, saying that "we need to teach the poor how to work"?

The crowd LOVED Newt's answer.

How can an 11-year-old own a donut shop anyway?

Uh...what? What the hell does being loved here have to do with anything? And, dude, I'm fully aware I'm not "loved" here so don't tell me to "get off my high horse" on that subject. But, again, your comment doesn't even make sense. Nothing in my comment had to do with being popular here.

Little too much ganja at your Paul debate watch party, I guess...

Fox panelists talking only about Paul? wtf.

Wow... that crowd doesn't really like being challenged do they?


He's increasing in the 'scum' factor... wow, he's absolutely and utterly disgusting.  

Whether or not you agree with Newt, his message is definitely resonating with South Carolina voters, which is what matters at this point.

So this is what Nuremberg was like >>Godwin's Law but only slight hyperbole.  Christ, this is embarrassing.

Important correction: Republican South Carolina voters.

Hopefully it's enough to put him over the top.

I forgot about Rick's ancestral roots in Italy. The comment was about his attitude/ideology, not his background (after all, Rick was talking like Mitt Romney should have been the Mussolini of Massachusetts by somehow forcing convicted felons not to vote in Massachusetts). I apologize.

Santorum, Newt, and Paul are dominating.

Fox is desperate to get Paul tonight.

Dont post here anymore. Quit it, your almost as bad as CaDan.

Why is Paul getting just foreign policy questions?

What is Paul rambling on about now?

Khalid Sheik Who?!

Children are supposed to go to school to learn how to think, not to learn how to be a janitor. We need a nation of thinkers, not janitors.

Really disjointed, incoherent answer by Paul.

I disagree. Children should learn to have a work ethic (which I lack :P) as well.

Sun rises in the east, sets in the west.

Paul getting booed. Nice.

Now Mullah Omar is the "bad" guy we need to fear I guess....

Moreso than most. :P

Paul seems very cranky tonight.

Andrew Jackson was a dictator, Newt.

I agree, but there are better ways to instill work ethic than forcing kids to be janitors. Also, Newt's comments are hurtful towards janitors. This is all that some of them can do. They should still have pride in their job because somebody has to do it or wherever it is they work will descend into a mess.

Newt getting the big applause.

Edit: Paul getting big boos. Awesome.

Gingrich: "I know where he is now. I know everything."

This crowd is unbelievable. Romney, then Paul 2012!

Newtie is killing Paul!

The crowd is stacked AGAINST Paul? Wow. These people are murderous.

Again, let's stop with the obvious comments, guys.

I actually agree with Paul concerning military spending.  But he doesn't understand the international situation very well, and should stop talking about it.

wow. The man who ended the national bank and a ron paultard is attacking him? interesting

When is this over?

And CINOs. They deny the Golden Rule.

Leave the GOP.

Romney - We are under attack.

Romney was right on one thing...Osama deserved that bullet to the head. I disagree with Paul on the UBL mission, but legally, and morally, is right.

This has got to be the most painful debate to watch so far. And there's no comic relief from Cain and Bachmann anymore too. :(

Republicans hate the golden rule?

Romney's wrong. The Taliban did not declare war on us. We declared police action on them.

The crowd also just went from booing Paul to cheering him. Odd.

Big Government Conservatism is the only thing that needs to leave the GOP. The Libertarians are more than welcome in the party. They won't bankrupt the country, unlike some people who believe in excessive deficit spending.

Strong answer from Romney. He's back on his feet again.

Thats the one good thing he did. He also imprisoned Americans, and raped states rights. See, that type of attitude, it annoys me to no end.

Think of Assad is Mike Assad/NixonNow.

Turkey ruled by Islamic terrorist?!?

Flavor of the Month.

I don't say it often but I say it when it's justified.

Wow, the commentators really hate Paul.

Edit: Though Perry foiled their attempt to get people to get people to gang up on Paul by going on a tangent.

Israel: 51st State.

Perry defending pissing on corpses....

Who is heckling?

NICE ANSWER PERRY!

The heckler in the audience really needs to shut up.

What is Perry using as basis when he says that Obama's foreign policy makes our allies nervous and emboldens our enemies?

Perry just had a nice moment.

Nope, America according to these commentators, is a colony of Israel.

does anybody have a non-sh**tty livestream?

You're a Paul fan and like that answer? Uh...

Kelly Evans is hot.

Romney booed!!!

Yelnoc: http://www.therightscoop.com/9pm-watch-gop-fox-news-debate/

Oh dear god, Perry wants to drop Turkey as an ally. Kill me now.

Also, super bipolar audience.

And in this country we have the right to put our citizens in jail - Romney
* may not be the right quote.

We should not be in Afghanistan, but while were there, we need to defend ourselves. The Taliban are far worse. Pauls second answer, regarding AQ and the Taliban, was 100% correct, IMO.

Let's lynch Romney.

I'm there, it jumps every other second.

Saintly RIck is Anti-NDAA. AWESOME!

Also, Paul has a creepy laugh.

I am surprised Romney supports the NDOA.

Paul is hilarious tonight.

Does Romney realize that he comes across as an asshole every time he complains about time or the question being asked?

Pissing on corpses is defending ourself?

Prediction: Perry's Turkish stupidity dominates the debate recaps.

Santorum comes off as bitchy too when he does it.

They were attacked, they killed their attackers. The marines should be punished for being stupid enough to film that, not for what they did.

Perry's more dead than dead at this point, now.  I didn't think it could get much worse.

Israel doesn't want to become the 51st state.

Why?

Because then they would only have 2 senators

Ok, you guys really are that dense...

They were attacked. They killed their attackers. That doesn't confront the pissing on the corpses. The urinating wasn't defending themselves.

Its South Carolina Republicans, I would be terrified if you weren't terrified by them.

I like Romney's response on Social Security. Too bad he's probably lying.

Winning South Carolina will be a momentous achievement for Romney. I am not sure it is going to happen, though. Short of going a little bit further south, they are as far-right as you can get.

Thank god, we're off of foreign policy, I can listen without being terrified by these guys again.

Raising the retirement age is such a ridiculous idea.

Life expectancy is much higher now than it was in FDR's day.

No it isn't. Life expectancy has risen since we implemented social security and medicare. These people are living off the system longer and putting a bigger strain on the system.

It is not as ridiculous as watching the nation default.

Little guys paying the same as big guys? Fine in principle, terrible in pratice. But so are the alternatives.

Santorum is just a Big Government Democrat with socially conservative views. Who does he think he's kidding?

Solid Santorum answer.

Newt and Santorum have been sucking eachother all night, but Santorum realized he is going to be the "conservative" against Romney, so he bit down on Newt and now is running after Romney.

Romney actually said Santorum was right??? What is the world coming to?

Hate on teh gays is coming up next!

Christ... the social issues... time for mute.

It would be time to have tha volume on high polnut.

All of these guys' answers for Social Security and Medicare are pretty awful.  I don't really care about Social Security, because its solvable, but Medicare...  Well, no one has a clue on that one.

No, I don't want my blood-pressure going that high.

Seriously, this is going to be painful..

I'm sure they would support eliminating the cap on social security taxes, right? Right?

Social Issues. Time to see who hates poor people and gayz the most. Newt, followed by Santorum is my guess.

Romney HAS to be lying about the pro-gun voters.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/01/4091356/raising-the-retirement-age-increases.html

Besides, having in a system in that lets one generation retire early and another retire later just isn't fair.  It would be far more reasonable to knock people off government benefit programs if they're very wealthy, but of course, no one would like that.

What are you afraid of, one of them calling for the end of abortion?

So far I like how the social issues are going.

Santorum is anti guns, and I why am I not surprised.

He's like his mentors the Bushes

Frothy is getting mad. And then again, he was booed. So my point was made already.

Is the NRA anti-gun too?

Lol, no because we've heard it all before... and despite what you want so fervently... it's not going anywhere.

The NRA is anti gun? Wow.

I get a kick out of people who act like Romney was the Mussolini of Massachusetts. Just because Romney was Governor of Massachusetts does not mean he agreed with every law in place in Massachusetts when he was Governor.

Newt zinger against Romney.

So wealthy people who have paid literally hundreds of thousands of dollars into Social Security and Medicare over decades should not get any return whatsoever on their "investment," if you can call it that?

Romney is getting spanked again...

My party has become a joke...

So Romney is Bigfoot?

Yes. The NRA supports gun bills only to rally people and raise money so they can build a massive office building outside DC which I have to see everytime I go to visit my relatives in Manasas.


The NRA gave Paul a 100% rating too, they give all Republicans a 100%.

BIGFOOT IS REAL!!!!

It's going to end. The tide of this debate is in favor of the pro-life movement.

Lol @ Romney

Become? It has been for a while, this bunch is just the punchline.

You're a self parody.

So Romney did talk to them?

Did Romney just come out in favor of extending citizens united even further?

Perry, we are not enemies with Mexico.

It's better than telling middle-class people of old age to work longer and that they're screwed if they lose their jobs and can't find work.  It's a misguided thing to do, especially when unemployment is so high.  And we already have people working longer than they should be just because they can't afford to retire.

If we want to stop from defaulting, we should cut waste out of the system and roll back the Bush tax cuts.  Your guy wants to make the cuts permanent and bloat our military.

Not since declaring his candidacy for 2012 obviously. Do you really think Team Romney is not ironclad secure with regards to protecting their behind?

Well, it's over. I think Gingrich won with Santorum a close second. Romney was hit pretty hard and had his worst debate so far. Paul....well...lol.

If the choice is default or raise the retirement age, that is not even a choice.

I can't get over some of you folks on the left. You seem to think the wealthy can bail out everybody else, or pick up the slack for everybody. It's just not so. What you are advocating ultimately amounts to theft, and does not solve the problem.

There is no getting around it: Raising the retirement age and/or raising taxes will need to occur down the road.

Lovin' the Twitter analysis. Paul is high on all catagories.

The middle-class has been picking up the slack for everybody for years!  The rich can pay their taxes no problem, but the middle-class needs the tax relief.  We don't need to raise the retirement age, but we can roll back the expensive tax cuts and not bloat our military, like Romney wants to do.

The answer is to cut spending and raise taxes simultaneously.  Raising the retirement age so that the middle-class can suffer more isn't the answer at all.

Newt's performance was insanely good. Like I obviously disagree with everything he says, but that was the best performance he could possibly give.

I love Ron Paul.  But I'm sorry - half his supporters are dumb as hell who just latch onto him and believe he's right on EVERY issue - that's not healthy, PEOPLE!  It's hard to perfectly align with someone on every issue.

They should have brought up SOPA/PIPA and gays. Also, that chick on the pannel is hot.

Maybe in the international press.  In the national press, no one will care, because nobody knows a thing about Turkey.  Including Perry, as should be clear from his answer.  I wanted to throw things at my computer, honestly.  He lumped in Turkey with Syria and Iran... wtf?!?  Patent idiocy!

Life expectancy for higher-income owners has risen, but it's been more or less stagnant for the lower income workers that actually depend on social security.

The audience terrifies me.  Seriously.  Where does the bloodlust come from?

Yeah, Perry is off his rocker. Turkey is the model nation of what we want throughout the Middle East. Next Tuesday cannot come soon enough so that Perry the turkey can be sent back to Texas for good.

White southern Republican audience, black man in the "White" House

So, can I get a summary?

I didn't get to watch the debate until the very end when I got home, so I don't have an opinion.

Even if people here cared, it wouldn't get much press - Perry is a non-issue now.

What happened ?

A short summary please if someone has time ... ;)

I didn't watch the the debate but some of the early op-eds seem to be suggesting that Newt had a great night and that Romney was hit hard. That's good news considering that I desperately want South Carolina to give us at least one more interesting primary.

Romney got clobbered by Santorum early on, Gingrich showed up big, Perry did quite well, Paul had his usual performance and Santorum did pretty okay.

My rankings:

1. Paul
2. Gingrich
3. Perry
4. Santorum
5. Romney

NBC morning news recap featured: Newt's Bain attack, Santorum's felon attack, Perry's tax return insistence and the live lynching of Juan Williams.

Here's my version:

Romney: Played it safe - too safe.  Was on his heels much of the night, and when he needed to fight back, was mostly flat and unpersuasive.  Had a few of his classic polished non-answer answers, but others, was taking a lot of hits.

Gingrich: Full-on attack mode on Romney and everyone not an uber-conservative.  Lots of red meat for the stalwart SC conservative base, lots of cheers, sounded confident and poised.  His positions still ring as almost absurdly extreme, so I don't think this alters his ceiling, but he'll definitely gain some momentum from this, and the support will probably come 50/50 from Romney and Santorum.

Santorum: Tried to be the attack dog, but was cornered into some bizarre positions.  To me, it felt like he was actually running to the LEFT of Romney, on race issues, indefinite detention, etc., which was really, really strange.  He seems to be running a FL campaign in SC after running a SC campaign in NH.  Didn't perform badly, but didn't notice a lot of applause moments and may have stepped in it a bit by repeating Ron Paul's "blacks get screwed by the judicial system" comments from NH's debate.

Paul: Pretty much the usual Paul performance.  Was more assertive and strident than usual, but missed a lot of the cues to convey a vision vs. responding to the specific question.  I think his big success of the night was to do a better job of conveying his military vs. defense view - blunts some of the national security criticisms, and looked like less of a libertarian and more of a paleocon on that issue.  However, he stepped in it on Osama bin Laden, as he gave a meandering and unpersuasive answer about what the US should have done.  All told, he had a pretty solid performance, but it wasn't a breakout performance.  (Personally, I find it fun to watch his evolution as a debater.  Still hoping he learns to do a better job at communicating his vision, rather than approaching a debate as a strict Q&A.)

Perry: Didn't receive much attention, didn't overtly blow any of the questions, but still said some of the same stupid sh** he's known for, just hid it better.  The Turkey comments will probably be requoted.  One of his better performances, but he's still done after SC.

Apparently, throwing red meat to South Carolina Republicans is far more important than acting like a reasonable statesman.

Don't act surprised and indignant about it, this has been true since time immemorial.

Newt won the battle, Mittens won the war.