There's already comments on last night's debate from Mitch (who sat next to me at the Patriot Primary), Michael (two seats down), Ed, and others. I'm puzzled by Scott's conclusion that Romney won. I thought he came off far too combative; the "I was wrong" on abortion line was buried in a lot of non-answering of questions. And too much attack: Even when he was right, such as tagging Mike Huckabee on signing Arkansas' DREAM Act, Romney comes off as meanspirited.

I also utterly disagree with Ed on the quality of CNN's questions (even discounting to zero the planted general.) A commenter at Powerline got this exactly right:

CNN chose the questions so once again we get the liberal's perspective of conservatism.

"What would Jesus do?"
"Do you believe this book"
Lock and loaded gun prop question.
Confederate Flag.

And of course...Should women go to jail if they have an abortion.

Not a single question on trade. Not a single question on education. Shoving the Iraq questions until late in the program. It was highly manipulative towards CNN's ends, and not for the betterment of the Republican watching this program to decide who they should support in the primary.

Last thing I learned -- Rusty Humphries is more than a Louie Anderson look-alike. Michael and I greatly enjoyed dinner with him and Patriot station manager John Hunt before the debate, and that fellow's knowledge of the Middle East was impressive. I'll have to start listening.

Labels: politics