Who Won Darthmouth Bloomberg/WaPo Debate?

[Likely Voter]

Who won?

Who helped themselves?

Who hurt themselves?

[M]

1. Romney, with a generally solid performance, though defense of TARP could come back to bite him
2. Paul, who really got a chance to hold his own
3. Cain, who took solid punches but got to be the center of attention
4. Huntsman, who did well but didn't stand out
5. Perry, who only did alright - but turned in his best performance yet
6. Gingrich, whose "jail the Democrats" was a little TOO strong
7. Santorum, who landed attacks on Cain but sounded too angry
8. Bachmann, who was irrelevant and wacky - especially with the 666 thing

[NHI]

Romney, Romney, Romney

[Wonkish1]

All Romney and Newt!!

[cavalcade]

I couldn't vote.  I would seriously say tie between Romney and Cain.

[Averroës Nix]

Re-posting my grades from the official debate thread:

Romney - B+
Gingrich - B
Paul - B
Cain - B-
Santorum - C
Huntsman - C-
Perry - D+
Bachmann - D


Romney did well (though he wasn't as shiny as in some previous debates, he still outclassed the field).

Paul and Gingrich had moments.

Cain and Perry avoided major gaffes (unless naming Alan Greenspan as your favorite Fed Chair is a major gaffe... it's stupid, but I'd say no). Perry remained lethargic. He didn't re-invigorate his candidacy, if that's what anyone was looking for.

Santorum was feisty... probably too feisty. Failed to land any attacks well.

Huntsman and Bachmann were irrelevant.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Paul and Mitt won tonite.
Perry should withdraw now.
Cain: How did losing the values voters debate and getting pwned by Dr. Paul regarding the fed tonite feel?

[Peeperkorn]

Romney and Paul.

[Pyro]

Romney: A-   The winner. He performed as well as usual, but lost some points for being a closet supporter of TARP, something which will hurt his chances in the future. No one will believe that you're different from Obama if you keep supporting everything he's doing (minus Obamacare...wait nevermind.)

Paul: A-  Also a great debater as usual, Paul stood out from the rest as the outsider, the one who would actually change how government works. He spoke well and did not sound as crazy as his opponents believe he does. He did great on the Fed question and defeated Cain in response.

Cain: B  He did pretty well when confronted by his opponents, but we're pretty tired of hearing about 999 over and over. We need more plans, we need policies that are "jobs" plans from him. I can picture him as the Romney alternative, but only if he becomes less cocky in the future.

Perry: B-  Perry did noticeably better in this debate than in the previous ones. There were no obvious slurring or tired-Perry moments, which will show. He also did well focusing on energy policies. However, he could not defeat Romney, nor Cain, which means he's just about finished. Way too boring.

Huntsman: B-  Speak louder! Talk about foreign policy, please! Seriously, Huntsman has once again failed to reach the spotlight. He made a few decent jokes, but it's becoming obvious that he's shooting for a position in the Romney cabinet.

Gingrich: C  He performed less-than-great this time around. The audience is growing tired of his complaining of the media, and to stand out, he needs to separate himself from the crowd. He received a bit of applause, so it wasn't terrible. Too dull and too extreme this time.

Bachmann: D+  It's all over for the Minnesotan. She had her spotlight as well, but it's going to be extremely hard to regain that. Overshadowed by Cain, it's doubtful that anything will come from this candidate. Her laughter was irritating and many of her statements were plain factually incorrect. Romney giving her the pity softball question tells a lot.

Santorum D-  The worst performance yet. We already knew Santorum couldn't possibly beat out Romney, but now that Cain and Perry are far ahead of him (even Huntsman in some polls o.o) I think he's given up. Extra frothy, extra offensive to the LGBT community, and "I want to go to war with China!" were the highlights. At least he got a little fired up.


In my opinion, we need to ditch Bachmann and Santorum and get Johnson and Roemer up there. I really want to give them a chance, and judging from his tweets and off-stage responses, Roemer would be a great debater.

[California8429]

From commentaries I've seen it seems that nothing really happened. I look forward to watching it tomorrow (sorta)

[Eraserhead]

1. Romney aka The Republican nominee for President in 2012.
(big gap)
2. Cain

Perry was horrid. He's done. The others don't matter.

[Peeperkorn]

Cain only repeated 999 this and 999 that. He is supposed to be a candidate for POTUS, not a employee of telemarketing.

[Eraserhead]

Cain only repeated 999 this and 999 that. He is supposed to be a candidate for POTUS, not a employee for telemarketing.

He's a candidate for President in the way that Huckabee was one in 2008. He wants a TV show and he's still on his way to getting one after this debate.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Romney: A-   The winner. He performed as well as usual, but lost some points for being a closet supporter of TARP, something which will hurt his chances in the future. No one will believe that you're different from Obama if you keep supporting everything he's doing (minus Obamacare...wait nevermind.)

Paul: A-  Also a great debater as usual, Paul stood out from the rest as the outsider, the one who would actually change how government works. He spoke well and did not sound as crazy as his opponents believe he does. He did great on the Fed question and defeated Cain in response.

Cain: B  He did pretty well when confronted by his opponents, but we're pretty tired of hearing about 999 over and over. We need more plans, we need policies that are "jobs" plans from him. I can picture him as the Romney alternative, but only if he becomes less cocky in the future.

Perry: B-  Perry did noticeably better in this debate than in the previous ones. There were no obvious slurring or tired-Perry moments, which will show. He also did well focusing on energy policies. However, he could not defeat Romney, nor Cain, which means he's just about finished. Way too boring.

Huntsman: B-  Speak louder! Talk about foreign policy, please! Seriously, Huntsman has once again failed to reach the spotlight. He made a few decent jokes, but it's becoming obvious that he's shooting for a position in the Romney cabinet.

Gingrich: C  He performed less-than-great this time around. The audience is growing tired of his complaining of the media, and to stand out, he needs to separate himself from the crowd. He received a bit of applause, so it wasn't terrible. Too dull and too extreme this time.

Bachmann: D+  It's all over for the Minnesotan. She had her spotlight as well, but it's going to be extremely hard to regain that. Overshadowed by Cain, it's doubtful that anything will come from this candidate. Her laughter was irritating and many of her statements were plain factually incorrect. Romney giving her the pity softball question tells a lot.

Santorum D-  The worst performance yet. We already knew Santorum couldn't possibly beat out Romney, but now that Cain and Perry are far ahead of him (even Huntsman in some polls o.o) I think he's given up. Extra frothy, extra offensive to the LGBT community, and "I want to go to war with China!" were the highlights. At least he got a little fired up.


In my opinion, we need to ditch Bachmann and Santorum and get Johnson and Roemer up there. I really want to give them a chance, and judging from his tweets and off-stage responses, Roemer would be a great debater.

I believe that you underestimate the impact of Romney's support for TARP.

Coming on top of Obamaneycare, and his past record of changing position on a number of issues, this may end up being the killer.

[Phony Moderate]

Cain and Perry also both have a history of supporting TARP.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Cain and Perry also both have a history of supporting TARP.

True.

But, its the number of times a candidate differs from the party members of major issues that counts.

For Romney, it is the third strike.

For Perry, it he makes a point of reiterating his support for TARP, it could be the third strike (he already enraged the base with his policies on illegal aliens, and he was a Democrat not so long ago supporting liberal policies.

[Oakvale]

It just further proved that  the Republican field consists of Mitt Romney and then a bunch of clowns. I don't like Romney, but he's the only one that's even remotely "Presidential". Sure he hasn't got many actual convictions, but no one really care when your opponents are a loose collection of kooks and gimmick candidates. At this point, given the pathetic state of his opposition, I don't see how he loses the nomination.

I also should add that I don't see Cain's current popularity lasting under any actual scrutiny. I mean, he might not need to know how to pronounce Uzbeki beki- beki- beki- stan, but he's about due for some kind of Palinesque trainwreck interview. It's about Newt or Santorum's turn for a spell in the sun of soft poll numbers.

[billbillerson]

I think based strictly on performance, Newt won. However, he didn't do anything to help his overall game (people know he is a good debater and they're still not giving him poll votes or money).

Romney did exactly what he needed to do in a debate like this, he was in his element and he was very smooth and gave good answers.

Cain wasn't bad... I think the people that like Cain are going to like him even more, the people who are unsure of Cain are going to be even more unsure.

Perry... the only person Perrry outperformed (aka looked less drunk/sleepy than) was the moderator.

[Ⓐnarchy in the ☭☭☭P!]

It was an interesting format, but it was a seriously screwed up time schedule. It was "Romney-Perry-999, Romney-Perry-999" with Gingrich interrupting and Huntsman getting chances to make lame jokes every once in a while.

Anyway, Romney's performance would have been the best had he not defended TARP. Everyone is seriously underestimating how damaging that could be, and it wouldn't be hard to hammer Romney on the issue repeatedly.

Cain was on a roll in the first half, but then he was hammered by Frothy quite effectively, basically lied outright to Paul, and then was called out by Paul again on supporting Greenspan. Probably on the "poor" side, but not a Perry style campaign breaker.


Perry did okay. Gingrich did fine. Huntsman's jokes were lame. Bachmann did okay (She had to bring up 999 reversed = 666). Paul had something like five minutes in the entire debate, but he did fine, and Frothy actually did a pretty good job of damaging Cain.

[CatoMinor]

Romney and ███ ████

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Romney and ███ ████

He means Ron Paul.