Impressions and opinions:
Romney has bad makeup. His face looks orange. It glows. Looks weird.
Gingrich is thumping the lectern with his finger. The way that the lectern is set up with the microphone you can hear even a light tap and it's annoying.
This is a good debate in that there are fewer people on stage. Cain, of course, is out and Huntsman decided to pass on this debate so there are only six on stage. More time for debate.
The moderators are Diane Sawyer and George Steponallofus. That's bad. They suck.
Newt is smiling and laughing a lot. I guess he is continuing his good guy persona plus it's easier to smile when you are the front runner.
Bachmann is getting some serious time to talk and is making (mostly) good use of it. Santorum is getting shorted again. Which is too bad.
If I could have my way and pick the order of popularity of the candidates it would be Santorum, Bachmann, Perry, Gingrich, Romney, Huntsman. That's in order of (in my opinion) conservatism. Paul is off the list because he is a nut and I mean that in all sincerity. Paul sounds reasonable until he starts down the foreign policy route and starts going full isolation. He isn't a conservative. He isn't really a Republican. He is a libertarian. And a crank.
Romney is different is this debate. He is far more animated and talkative. He is going on the offensive against Gingrich. And anyone else who takes a poke at him. What a difference a month makes. A month ago he was the presumed nominee in waiting and was just coasting through the debates...trying to not say anything at all and, due to a cooperative media, mostly getting away with it. The problem is that he looks desperate at this point and the funny looking dayglo orange makeup gives him a bizarre appearance.
Diane Sawyer is obnoxious. When she is droning on and on in the lead up to her eventual question you just want to shove her down a short flight of stairs or something. Or maybe shoot her in the ass with one of those tranquilizer darts that they use on Wild Kingdom. She needs to be released back into the wild with her own species.
It's pretty obvious that this is the final debate before the Iowa caucus. These guys are all serious about defining themselves. Paul isn't wasting any time over defining himself as anti-Israel. Gingrich smacks down Paul over this issue. Romney tries to split the baby on the Israel/Palestinian issue...probably not going to fly with many conservatives.
Bachmann is pretty good about hiding the fact that she is only a two term congresswoman. She talks about her time in congress like she has been there forever. I serious. She is very clever in the way that she presents herself. If she were the front runner then the others wouldn't hesitate to point out her relative inexperience at the federal level. As an "also ran" she is free to work this verbal and mental sleight of hand.
Perry is still trying to get traction. He is mostly doing it the right way. He is targeting O'Bama at almost every opportunity rather than going after the other Republican candidates. He gets audience applause when he does it. Probably good for a point or two improvement in the way he polls. Sadly, too little, too late.
ABC is doing something very annoying with their commercial time. When they cut to commercial they play about two minutes worth of ads and then they come back with a "Debate Rewind" for thirty seconds and then cut away for another two minutes of ads. That sucks. Idiots.
Perry's debate performance is FINALLY where it should have been from the very first one. Again, too little, too late.
It's kind of funny listening to Romney telling how he is an ordinary guy, just like everyone else. He has to go all the way back to his father to claim his "poor person" heritage. He really has to strain to try and pull it off and it doesn't really fly. He is a rich guy...a patrician, and there is no way that he can disguise it. It's comical watching him try.
Santorum is really getting shorted on air time. Nothing new, of course, but you have to wonder where he would be if he got equal time.
Bachmann would be my number one choice if it weren't for her annoying habit of making sh*t up like the "retard in a needle" Gardasil story. If she had walked that one back (or better yet, never made it at all) she would still be in the top tier.
Gingrich is very cool under fire. Make no mistake, he is under fire from the other candidates on stage and from the two MFMers who are moderating. He looks cool, calm and poised while they attempt to heap crap onto him. This bodes well for how he might hold up under O'Bama. O'Bama is an idiot and I have no doubt that Gingrich would vivisect him (figuratively speaking) in any encounter. Gingrich is totally fearless. He seems to relish an opportunity to kick the MFMers asses whenever they try to pull a fast one. This appears to be a lesson that he learned (after the fact) from when he was Speaker. He will not allow the MFM to control the debate...to frame issues using false assumptions. He throws it right back in their faces. None of the other candidates (except sometimes Paul) will do this. Sadly, I see Bachmann still taking the bait on occasion.
Steponallofus poses a stupid ass question (What is the one thing you have learned from someone else on stage?) and Santorum (sadly) tries to answer it. If I had been pitched that question I wouldn't dignify it with an answer. I would throw it right back at them..."Are you serious? I'm running for president and this is your question? Why not ask me what my favorite color is or if I could be any kind of animal what kind of animal would I be? This is serious stuff, George. Why don't you treat it and us seriously?" Perry and Romney take the bait and answer it seriously. Looks like they are all going to fall for this crap. Too bad. Oh, well.
Paul sez that freedom is based on tolerance and non-violence. What utter nonsense. Our freedom was originally purchased with blood and death and treasure with the extremely violent overthrow of the British. It has been secured by the extremely violent Civil War and WWII and so on and so on. Freedom isn't free and never has been. Paul is an absolute moron on his pacifist libertarian crap.
I think Gingrich won the debate in that no one was ever able to really damage him. He still looked like the smartest guy on stage.
The post debate spin started (amazingly) by pointing out a tactical error by Romney. Romney at one point during the debate tried to bet Perry $10,000 that he was mis-quoting him. The media spin is that that amount of money represents about three month's pay for most Americans and that it was insensitive to casually wager that kind of money just to make a point. This situation marks the first time that I have seen the MFM say anything negative about Romney or his performance. What is going on?
ABC is going out of its way to play up Gingrich post debate. Also going out of their way to explain that Romney sucked. Criticized Bachmann for pandering to the Cain demographic, too. I noticed that and was also annoyed by it. Holy cow, ABC is really playing up Gingrich as the guy to beat after this debate...like they were impressed with him or something. Turning point? I know that they get their marching orders from the WH so there must be a strategic shift going on at the Dingus HQ.
