Newt was saved by a commercial.
Newt was off his game in the first exchange.
Mitt was attacking Newt as being a lobbyist and Newt responded that he did not make that much money from Freddie and Fannie as the money went to entities which means the money was going to employees and Newt was taking a small salary along with profits after expenses. Newt correctly responded that it was unfair and asked how much Bain made and it was not fair to say that Bain entity profits and Romney profits were one in the same.
For whatever reason Gingrich lost that point which was a winning argument and started babbling about Medicare.
Then Romney had his best moments.
For Newt thankfully there was a commercial.
After the commercial, there has been no real debate just boredom which favors the frontrunner who still appears to be Gingrich.
He started talking about Medicare because Romney accused him of lobbying for Medicare and influence peddling. Romney was the one who switched gears in the middle of his answer, and Gingrich had to tackle two accusations within his response time.
It was romney that threw medicare in at Newt. He jumped ugly from freddie mac to medicare part d accusing Newt of influence peddling.