Who won the NBC debate?

[Negusa Nagast 🚀]

My take:

Santorum: B-
Paul: B-
Gingrich: C
Romney: C

[RI]

Santorum, if only because Romney and Gingrich were absolutely awful and petty. That five minute exchange between the two on Freddie Mac irritated/bored me to no end.

Mitt dodged everything as usual, but the laughs he got when he said "self-deportation" were comical.

[Keystone Phil]

Rick rises above.

[Negusa Nagast 🚀]

Rick rises above.

Rather, everyone sank below.

[Politico]

Romney because Gingrich was unable to hide the fact that he resigned from the House leadership in disgrace, Nixon-style. And does Gingrich really think anybody believes he was paid $1.6 MILLION by Freddie Mac to be a historian?

[Thomas D]

Newt won by not losing.

[Lief 🗽]

Accidentally voted Rick, meant to vote Newt.

Newt is the frontrunner, he has the momentum; Romney did nothing to change the trajectory of the race.

[NHI]

Mitt.

[Sam Spade]

This should stop Gingrich's momentum, though who knows whether it did much else (or even that), as I had trouble staying awake during it.

Another point would be that it may not matter much now (and that point may be quite accurate).  But only time will tell.

[Politico]

Newt is the frontrunner, he has the momentum;

Romney is still up on Gallup, and momentum for Gingrich? That came to an end tonight. Did you not watch that debate? John Kerry was more exciting than Newt Gingrich.

[Mehmentum]

Santorum had the strongest performance, but I think Newt is still best positioned.

[Lief 🗽]

Newt is the frontrunner, he has the momentum;

Romney is still up on Gallup, and momentum for Gingrich? That came to an end tonight. Did you not watch that debate? John Kerry was more exciting than Newt Gingrich.

Romney is down big in Florida and has lost a 24-point lead in about a week on Gallup. Tomorrow the Gallup tracking poll should show Gingrich in the lead, as today's poll only had one of five days of interviews from after SC.

And I really don't think a Mitt Romney supporter should be throwing around John Kerry comparisons. Maybe think that one over again.

[Peeperkorn]

PAUL B-
SANTORUM B-
NEWT C
ROMNEY C

[Peeperkorn]

Newt won by not losing.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Newt won by not losing.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Paul: A
Santorum: A
Romney: F
Gingrich: F

[redcommander]

The winner I would say would be Santorum just because Romney and Gingrich looked too much like a bunch of whiny kids for the first segment. Gingrich was definitely knocked down a bit after South Carolina, and Romney handled himself much better than last week, and was much more aggressive against Gingrich. Paul was his usual colorful self. No one was an epic fail though which was refreshing.

[Sam Spade]

You don't win by not losing, folks...

[LastVoter]

Newt won by not losing.

But Santorum had the best performance, because the rest of the candidates had a "Paul" performance.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Barack Obama

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Newt won by not losing.

[Brandon H]

Anyone who did not waste their time watching it. This debate sucked. Possibly the worse one so far.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Santorum, if only because Romney and Gingrich were absolutely awful and petty. That five minute exchange between the two on Freddie Mac irritated/bored me to no end.

Mitt dodged everything as usual, but the laughs he got when he said "self-deportation" were comical.

The concept makes a lot of sense. I have espoused it for the better part of five years as being the best way to deal with illegal immigration, rather then rounding people up or giving people who have broken the law in a serial fashion (Props to Santorum for pointing this out) a free pass and encouraging the next wave to come. I would have to say that the real winner of this debate was the immigration issue. Because for the first time we had an honest discussion that we should have been having all along. The only reason people laughed is because they have it engrained in their heards that the only two options are McCain/Kennedy/Obama/Bush or the Tancredo Hitler style racist approach. With a debate of four, two of whom are Romney and Santorum, the discussion has improved greatly on this issue. There is no McCain/Giuliani and there is no Tancredo. With Perry gone, there is no more talk of a Chuck Norris employment plan (Ranger Recon Teams) or bashing Romney for not racially profilling his lawn care workers. Get used to the term "Self-deportation". 


I think Romney's position of pro-legal immigration and embracing Newt's military only concept of a Dream Act, while still being firm in border security and internal enforcement (E-Verify) is a solid and well thoughtout stance, contrary to what certain Gingrich supporters claimed a few months back. And one that is still very much electable and not that desirous on Hispanic support (I can easily see Romney still getting a sufficient 39-41%, even with this position depending on the campaign being run and proper amount of definition and nuance being firmly established by Romney). Romney also appeared to articulate a path to legalization, that also included touchback or leaving the country and getting at the back of the line (The only way I would support a legalization plan). This explanation helps clarify what Romney meant in December 2007 on Meet The Press. Touchback solves the "Serial Amnesty" problem of creating the next wave) and is completely consistent with opposing Amnesty. Another alleged Romney flip flop can be tossed in the trash, though none of the Anti-Mittens people will notice or care. The question about supporting English as a national language while still campaigning in local languages was well articulated by Gingrich as to why that isn't hypocrisy. Unlike 2008, when that question was butchered and used as a way to bash Romney and others who were doing that. Ron Paul also had a good point about how Florida should have the right to do it's ballots however it wants regardless of what the feds do.

I think Santorum did the best overall. Romney and Newt kind of hit each other into a draw (versus each other) and put each other into second place to Rick with that beginning interaction. Ron Paul had some good points as usuall. However, if Mitt Romney wants to win Florida he has to do better though. He needs to win the next debate.

[Averroës Nix]

It was a mediocre debate for Newt, and a merely OK one for Romney (you could tell that his new debate coach had worked for Bachmann, and that isn't a good thing). Their confrontation was the most interesting moment of the entire thing but it's not clear whether anyone came out on top, though it does something to undercut Gingrich's (absurd) argument that he's the best candidate because he's a good debater.

Santorum, mostly by default, won (obligatory dismissive parenthetical mention of Ron Paul). But he can't shed the irritable troll persona and present himself as a unifying figure. Unfortunate for him, because Romney's current travails represent the best chance that he's had to be a serious contender, and it seems as though he's incapable of taking advantage of the opportunity.

Anyway, I don't think that it matters. Tonight's debate doesn't change anything. Thursday's CNN debate, which will probably have a more animated audience, might be different.

[King]

Too bad I missed this.  There will be a second one this week, right?  That will probably matter more than this one.