Who won NH debate?
By WonkoKevin
The buzz on last night’s Republican debate is mixed. Some bloggers complained that no one did well. Others were fond of the entertaining exchange between Huckabee and Paul. Ron Paul supporters are noting that Paul won the debate according to Fox’s post-debate-text-messaging survey. Time Magazine and Fox and others both seemed to give kudos to McCain and thumbs-down to Romney. Here’s my own report card.
McCain (A): Seemed much more comfortable and self-confident last night. Came across as authoritative and presidential, and like many others I liked his comments on leadership versus management. He was positively attributed by just about every candidate at some point during the debate, and he seemed to give some wiggle room on his immigration stance. Definitely scored points with nailing Romney about confidence in the surge.
Huckabee (B+): Agree or not with his position, he did himself well in the stand-up with Paul. Bloggers didn’t necessarily like his “we broke it, we fix it” analogy but I thought this and other comments helped differentiate him from some of the others. Good confidence and well-spoken.
Giuliani (B): Good answers to some tough questions, and Rudy was Rudy, as always. He’s the only one who consistently went over-time though, and it would be nice to hear some answers that are not New York-centric.
Paul (B): Agree with him or not, Paul continued to define the field as him versus the others, which is to his advantage. No ambiguity in his answers, which is refreshing but risky.
Brownback (B-): Handled Craig question well, and was very straight forward about what to do re Iraq and Iran.
Hunter (C+): Came across as very knowledgeable about military affairs, but perhaps his answer was a bit too detailed for a mainstream audience. We know the border fence is a big priority of his, but we knew that before.
Romney (C): Appeared flustered by Iraq questions and did not respond elegantly to question about his comment re his sons not serving. I may be alone but it seems to me that he flashes a smile, or at least a slight grin, at the wrong times, which then does not enable him to say things with great gravity. He has performed much better in other debates.
Tancredo (C-): Quoted Thomas Friedman.
I agree with Wyatt McIntyre–regardless of where you stand on Iraq, the exchange between Paul and Huckabee was the first shred of real debating we have seen to-date, and I’d really like to see more of it. Wyatt summarizes, “If we want democracy and we want a real contest lets make people fight for it each and every step of the way as these two showed they are willing to do.”
