Each of the individual candidates may have had their strong and weak moments in last night’s debate, but a dominant strategy clearly emerged: If you are going to attack someone, attack them from the right.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got off to an awful start when he again parroted DNC talking points on entitlement spending. When Texas Gov. Rick Perry shot back, telling Romney to stop “trying to scare seniors,” the debate audience erupted in approval. The exchange made Romney looked weak and completely out of touch with Americans growing intolerance for the federal government’s addiction to overspending.