Mitt Romney: He needed a slam-dunk performance to prove he was not all dead. He delivered. His attack on Gingrich’s lobbying career was relentless, stuck to facts and details, and seemed to last a painful eternity for the former House Speaker. Romney simply schooled his foe, and as a fallen frontrunner he could afford to do no less. The Romney who badly bungled his tax returns did not show up last night. Instead, some other guy showed up with well-tuned answers on housing and foreign affairs, who had clearly figured out how to think on his feet.
A strong debate performance is only worth so much. But consider these two things: First, it was a debate performance that cemented Gingrich’s South Carolina victory. Second, Romney managed to draw blood from a supposedly invincible debater, whose chief virtue is supposedly his ability to show up President Obama in debates. He probably has to beat Gingrich again Thursday night if he really wants to convince voters that Gingrich isn’t the debator he has seemed to be.
Newt Gingrich: Gingrich learned in 1995 that governing was harder than critiquing those governing, and he may have learned last night that defending a lead is harder than taking down the front-runner. It was his worst debate in months, if not his worst debate of the campaign.
Gingrich had no answers for Romney’s attacks on his lobbying, and he, oddly, had no specifics on which to attack Romney. It’s almost as if he didn’t feel the need to prepare as much as Romney did.
Did NBC’s crack-down on applause dampen Gingrich, who seemed oddly subdued?
Rick Santorum: Santorum was eloquent, conservative, forceful, and — for a change — didn’t seem pained and uncomfortable throughout. His closing argument, indicting his opponents for being conservative until it became difficult to be conservative, was probably the best speech of the night, and a reminder of Santorum’s occasional penchant for soaring, heartfelt oratory.
Still, he’s outside the main two-man scrum. The moderators were set on a Newt-vs-Mitt fight, and the best Santorum can do is hope to pick up the ball in case it pops out.
Ron Paul: Paul was mostly an afterthought in last night’s debate. He was less scattered than usual, and this was not his worst debate, but the enthusiasm engine that drives Paul’s support does not depend on these events anyway.
Although the moderators’ exclusive focus on Romney and Gingrich might have seemed unfair to him, it was in a sense appropriate. Paul has chosen, wisely, to skip winner-take-all Florida and focus on the caucus states that follow. This freed him up to talk about the Cuban embargo as he always has. If his goal is to amass as many delegates as possible, his mind is already on Nevada and Maine, not on the state in which he was debating.
