The Republican presidential candidates
gathered in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last night ahead of the third and
arguably the most important presidential primary next Saturday. The candidates,
now short one Jon Huntsman, did their best to stay on top of frontrunner Mitt
Romney, but failed as the allure of being the last, anointed anti-Romney proved
too great to ignore.
Mitt
Romney: (Previous letter grade: B --
> B+) Mitt Romney suffered a series of rather debilitating attacks in
the first hour, but was able to maintain a low profile in the second hour of
the Fox News debate while his competition attacked each other. He was forced to
concede several points to his opponents, but none that will prove derailing to
his campaign. He was forced by Rick Perry to admit that he needed to release
his income tax returns, Rick Santorum sprang a clever trap on Romney relating
to his less-than conservative record on allowing paroled felons to vote in
Massachusetts and Newt Gingrich forced Romney to admit that he hates the Super
PACs that are largely responsible for virtually ending the former Speaker’s
presidential hopes. These will prove damaging, but not fatal to a candidate out
in front of every poll by double digits.
Newt
Gingrich: (Previous letter grade: B+
-- > A-) Objectively, Gingrich won this debate. He had the audience (sleepy
and disengaged as they were) eating out of the palm of his hand. He landed some
good punches on Romney and Ron Paul vis a
vis his foreign policy, but the best punch Gingrich landed was against
moderator Juan Williams. Gingrich received a roaring, several-minute long
standing ovation from the audience when asked about allowing high school
students to perform janitorial duties in their free time. Williams also served
Gingrich up a softball when he asked him to defend calling Obama a “food stamp
president,” suggesting that this had some racist connotations. Gingrich blasted
it out of the park, speaking the language of conservatism to an audience hungry
for red meat. Gingrich will affect some positive movement on his numbers, but probably
not enough to overcome the disparity between himself and Romney.
Ron
Paul: (Previous letter grade: A- --
> C) Arguably, this was Paul’s worst debate performance of the long
debate season. Paul suffered from a lack of questions in the first half of the
debate, but in truth this was to his benefit. Once the spotlight was shown on
him, he dug himself into a series of rhetorical holes that were easy to attack.
Paul was hammered on his foreign policy, and the audience was none-too-receptive
to Paul’s attempts to clarify his position on defense and terrorism. Paul also
said when asked to define an income tax rate that his preferred rate would be
zero, as in Paul supports the repeal of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution –
A lofty but unserious goal. Paul won the audience over with his objection to
the National Defense Authorization Act, which many have legitimate concerns
about, but this is not enough to overcome the many wounds he was inflicted with
on Monday night.
Rick
Santorum: (Previous letter grade: B
-- > B-) Santorum had a cleaver debate, nailing Romney in a tactically brilliant
rhetorical dance that created a clear example of Romney running as a conservative
while governing as a liberal. Unfortunately, at issue is the right of convicted
felons to vote – something that both Romney and Santorum supported
legislatively at some point. Nevertheless, it was a good moment for Santorum.
However, the former Pennsylvania senator was on the receiving end of many
attacks from Romney and Paul and many of them stuck. South Carolina is the firewall
for a reason and is not predisposed to embrace a family values conservative that
cannot evidence a traditionally conservative fiscal policy. Santorum’s embrace
of anti-free market tax incentives, liberal labor laws and trade barriers is
out-of-step with his party’s base. These qualities were on display last night
and he is lucky if they do not negatively impact his standing in the Palmetto State.
Rick
Perry: (Previous letter grade: B+ --
> B-) Rick Perry had a great debate performance, if you love sound bites
and poll tested language. Perry struggles to wrestle with specifics and
repeated his one-sentence policy goals like “part time congress” and the
elimination of his much touted “three departments.” Perry caused a stir on
Twitter and in the audience when he said that South Carolina is “at war with
the Federal Government.” This sentiment, obviously, evokes a slightly more literal
application in South Carolina than it does in, say, Iowa. Also, Perry basically called the president of
Turkey an Islamic terrorist.
SumOlogy:
On paper, this looked like a bad night for Romney. He needed to suffer a
horrible night in order to impact the race noticeably. Gingrich won, but how
much this will help him in the polls is unclear. Santorum and Perry are
approaching also-ran status. Ron Paul floundered worse than in any previous
debate – his inability to articulate his policy beyond “slippery-slopisms” is insufficient
at this stage in the race.
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