The GOP Debate in Florida -- CNN Style

As I said earlier tonight, I really did not want to watch another Republican debate, but I did, and I am glad of it. Tonight's debate had a number of familiar portions, things that have been said before at a debate were repeated. The essence of the debate, however, was new. For example, let me point out something that I do not believe I have ever said before. The clear winner of the debate was Rick Santorum. Santorum was the adult on the stage. He was the one who tried to stop the personal attacks between Romney and Gingrich, much to the chagrin of moderator Wolf Blitzer. Santorum was the one who, even when he was explaining why his wife would be a good first lady, was able to display a sharp intellect, a devotion to conservative principles and a good nature that kept him above the others tonight. Perhaps Santorum's strongest moment came when he tied up the individual mandate in Romneycare with a bow and hung it around Romney's neck. It was the most devastating attack on Romneycare and Romney of the campaign in my opinion.

I suppose the conventional wisdom will be that Gingrich was the loser tonight since Romney landed so many punches on him. I do not think so; in my opinion it was Romney who lost big. Romney's weakness has been his lack of authenticity, the feeling that his principles were -- shall we say -- flexible. Mitt started well; he expressed outrage over an ad that had been run by the Gingrich folks. Sure, the outrage sounded like a replay of the Gingrich response to John King in South Carolina on the ex-wife question, but it would have played very well to those who had not seen both debates. Then Romney got asked about an ad that his campaign was running unfairly criticizing Gingrich. Romney's response was to deny any knowledge of the ad. He claimed to be totally unaware of the ad. If the issue were a new one, it would be remotely possible that Romney was unaware of the ad, but this is an issue that has been much discussed in Florida. There is no question that Romney knew of the ad, but his instincts told him to try to deny knowledge of it. All the good of the first exchange with Gingrich was erased. Romney later was again inauthentic when he tried to deny the similarities between Obamacare and Romneycare. I think the night was a clear negative for Governor Romney. He displayed a new feistiness, but it was just unbelievable.

Gingrich also did not have a great night. The initial attacks by Romney hit Newt hard. Even when Romney foundered while dealing with his own attack ads, it did not restore Gingrich. Santorum was effective in painting Newt as a prisoner of "big ideas" like lunar colonies when the government was broke. Newt got to make his pitch for a clear choice election with big ideas presented; Santorum made the point about just how effective a Gingrich presidency might be. In fairness, Gingrich also got to bring forward his crusade to stop the war on religion in America. I believe that this is a message that will resonate in the GOP base.

Ron Paul show a much quicker wit than he has in the past. He was genuinely funny in suggesting that the only travel to the moon he supported would be for "certain politicians." Paul, however, remains limited in the GOP primary by his foreign policy views. Every time he spoke about another candidates views regarding foreign policy, he accused the other candidate of trying to create wars or to impose American ideas through force. It was patently absurd.

I cannot end without noting both the performance of the moderator, Wolf Blitzer and the overall debate management by CNN. Blitzer (or Blitz as Herman Cain called him) was just so-so. His biggest failure was an unwillingness to get to big issues when there were personal disputes and slights to explore. Blitz also felt compelled to change the few questions that came from the audience in ways that were not improvements. CNN, however, was ridiculous. There was a three minute long opening sequence which looked more like the preview for Survivor than the begining of a presidential debate.

It will be interesting to see how tonight's debate affects the voting. My guess is that it will cement things for Romney even though he lost. Gingrich did not have a blow out performance like the debates in South Carolina. More important, to the extent that Santorum picks up votes, they are most likely to come from Newt.