The initial impression from reading about it, and watching some of the replays of it, is that they are missing some opportunities here. The only candidate who proposes really doing something to reign in Big Government is Ron Paul, but he is not taken seriously.
Obviously, I missed the debate, so this is a little behind the curve.
Barone thinks Santorum and Romney had good nights, and that Gingrich didn't. This is odd, because Gingrich wanted Romney one on one, but in this debate, he didn't seem to exploit that as well as he might have. So, surprisingly, Romney may have stepped up his game, and Newt may have slipped a little. One may wonder if that will be reflected in the polls, if any more will be taken. If not, will it make a difference in the outcome in the actual vote as tallied?
Really, it is too bad that Paul is taken more seriously. If the next president is to be a Republican, he will have to do something to reign in the size of government, and Paul is the only one left who seems to be determined to do that.
Paul is a bit hard to take on foreign issues to be sure, but to be honest about it, isn't that part of the problem?
Update:
I've watched the replay of the debate from start to finish. In my opinion, there were no clearcut winners in this debate. Sure, Santorum was more aggressive, but I don't think he connected on his attacks, in particular, those against Gingrich.
If style over substance is what matters, and if an aggressive style matters, then he can be said to have won. There were no killer answers and no killer mistakes. My prediction is that nothing happened here that will make any difference.
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