This debate was held against the background of things going Mitt Romney’s way: he continues to be ahead, tenuously in some polls and by growing margins in others, in South Carolina as well as nationally, even as he finds himself the target of sustained attacks by the pro-Newt Gingrich superPAC and, in a sudden surge, by Rick Santorum.

Santorum, fired up from a long day’s campaigning ending in a talk at the Faith and Freedom rally in a tent across the street from the debate site, the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, attacked Romney harshly in the first segment on, of all issues, his support for voting rights for felons who have served their time. Santorum had voted to restore their voting rights and argued that a pro-Romney superPAC ad against him on this issue was misleading (because it showed a prisoner in a jumpsuit while he had backed them only for those who had served their time and been through probation and parole). The two parried to show dominance, and I thought Romney was at an disadvantage on this, but it was an odd choice of issue for Santorum to take Romney on.