What matters most will be how the hard-core involved conservative GOP/Tea Party voting-block viewed tonight. My bet is that they came to the evening largely supporting Perry - and because he didn't 'step in anything' will not change Perry's leading numbers by more than 1 or 2 percentage points.
Hard-core GOP conservatives don't like Romney one bit, and I know he didn't pick up more than a fraction of new followers with his performance tonight.
The contest is clearly between Romney and Perry (the others really have no chance) so the winner tonight is Perry, though not a resounding one.
Perry did fine for his first performance but he’s got to get better in future debates. He was eloquent on some answers (jobs, capital punishment) and halting on others (SS, education, environment)
Romney had an exceptional night but had lousy eye contact w TV audience.
Newt wants to be in either’s cabinet. Let him fumigate HUD or HHS.