Perry and Gingrich are the clear winners.
Romney stumbled and bumbled. Bachmann is still annoying and Paul is still crazy, although he has his lucid moments. Santorum, sadly, isn’t going anywhere.
But the clear loser of the night was Diane Sawyer. We can only guess at what she was on.
One of the things that made this debate better was 2 fewer persons on the stage to suck up questions and responses.
If/when we lose one or two more, we should see better questions with more substantive responses.
Romney seems to have lost the most tonight.
Perry seems to have gained, with several good lines.
Gingrich survived the attacks.
Bachmann did okay.
Santorum did okay, but probably didn’t gain anything.
Paul no gain, no loss.
The ABC commentators seem unanimous in the feeling that Romney put his foot in his mouth big-time, and deflated much good feeling and support with his $10,000 bet challenge to Perry.
Having said that, everyone came off pretty well, the moderators were refreshingly serious and free of fishing
for “gotcha” moments. Romney was the biggest loser primarily because he had to most to lose, needed a lift from this debate, and barely managed to stay even with where he’s always been as a popular but “flat-lined” candidate.
Among the remaining serious contenders, the ones who got the biggest lifts in a practical, primary-vote garnering sense, are, in order , Gingrich,Perry, and Bachmann.
Gingrich, it should be unnecessary to emphasize here, is NOW the leading contender, on probably an unstoppable upward trajectory.
I’m sick of the media already making this a contest between Newt & Romney for the President of Iowa/New Hampshire. #IowaDebate
IMHO: Newt won this debate for not screwing up in his answers, and Mitt lost this debate for failing to TKO Newt. Observations: What was Newt looking down at, when looking at Mitt as Mitt was speaking? Was Newt looking at Mitt’s hand gestures, or was Newt looking at something else? Also, I found it amusing that the majority of candidates had a red background, while Mitt had a blue background, instead.
Newt held his own, Michelle continued to attack her peers, Romney looked desperate, Paul managed to string together at least two coherent sentences, and Santorum bored everyone to tears. It looks like it may come down to Newt vs Perry.
C-Span just announced on air, they will rebroadcast the debate twice this evening (Sunday)...9:30 pm and 12:30 am ET.
https://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/?eventClassId=19
Intrade changed over night...only a 7 pt gap between Romney and Gingrich; I’m surprised Perry didn’t go up.
Romney moved from 47% to 44%.
Morning after report;
I thought Perry may have won this debate or taken a close second to Newt. Are we in bizzarro world?
Newt did real good.
Romney? Why is this liberal standing on the stage in a G.O.P. debate?
Paul didn’t sound too insane this time.....bravo.
Michele....just stop. My goodness talk about the bloom coming off a rose.
Santorum.....Why is he running?
I genuinely like all of those candidates except Romney but Bachmann and Santorum need to pull out NOW.
Paul, if he places lower than third in Iowa needs to pull out.
Romney, once he loses Iowa and South Carolina needs to quit.
I look forward to a fight between Newt and Perry right up to the convention. Should Newt win, great. Should Perry win, at least the debates with Newt will have sharpened his skill enough to at least TRY not to sound like a complete idiot next to Obama.