Oh, the boring. The Boring!
NBC, home of the “serious questions only” debate, hosted the season’s most competitive nominee for “boring debate of the year.” The network’s attempt to divorce the audience's reaction from the equation made for a dull series of exchanges, with few exceptions. There is nothing wrong with a substantive debate that is more focused on the candidate’s policy positions than their showmanship, but most of the questions asked of this debate could hardly be considered substantive.
CNN/Southern Republican Debate Scorecard
Fox News / Myrtle Beach Debate Scorecard
The first 30 minutes of the debate were devoted to questions about the candidate’s individual campaigns and their paths to the nomination, or lack thereof in some cases. Very meta. With a brief intermission of substantial foreign policy questions, the candidates were then asked for their thoughts on provincial issues like beet sugar vs. pure cane sugar, Terri Schiavo and Cuban-American relations – hardly benchmark issues for 2012.
In short, if you missed this one, you missed nothing. The onus is now on CNN to make debates fun again. Lord knows, they have some experience.
Ah, well. Enough lamenting what could have been. On with the scorecard:
Newt Gingrich: (Previous letter grade: A- -- > B) Gingrich was battered by a fairly brutal series of attacks by all his opponents on stage – some he was able to parry effectively and some he was not. Overall, a marked improvement over December’s “frontrunner Newt,” who was routinely ruffled by attacks on his career as Speaker and lobbyist. Romney hit him hard on his recently released contract with Freddie Mac (which does not itself suggest any impropriety, but it comes from the mortgage giant’s public policy shop). Gingrich was at the disadvantage there, primarily because he does not have the truth on his side – he did not “lobby” as it is defined by the industry, but he did peddle influence and serve as the token conservative for the troubled GSE (as he probably did when he was working with conservatives on Medicare Part D – a program he defended vigorously last night). For those that hate lobbyists, influence, money, Washington and politicians in general, this will be tough for Gingrich to overcome. For those that see money and influence as an inexorable part of the political process, it’s not a big mark against him.
There were no “bad Newt” moments – he played the frontrunner role well. Gingrich had mostly good things to say about Santorum and Paul, perhaps as a way of engendering good faith should the convention come down to a delegate fight. Aside from a little trip-up with Romney where a mildly-painful silence followed a pointed question, he was fine. Not inspiring, not awful. Momentum in the polls does not materialize overnight; whatever momentum Gingrich derived from last week’s victories in South Carolina (two debates and an election) was not undone by his performance last night.
Mitt Romney: (Previous letter grade: B- -- > B) Yep, I call this one a tie. Romney did not impress and did not pander. NBC’s Brian Williams lobbed him a couple of softballs (Castro’s dead, now what?) and Romney did not whiff them – hitting respectable doubles consistently. He did his best to draw a stark contrast between himself and Gingrich, and succeed in the first half hour. After that, he was perhaps surprised that he found himself agreeing with the former Speaker most of the night. Romney seemed to indulge is general election instincts when he attacked Gingrich from the left, saying that he would pay zero in taxes if Gingrich had his way, eliminating capital gains taxes entirely. This is odd, many supply siders favor a zero percent tax on savings... so I don't know who Romney thought he was appealing to there. If there was one flop by Romney last night, it was after a question about illegal immigration and how he intends to implement his plan to force undocumented workers to return home without mass deportations – his answer? “Self-deportation.” That drew a deserved laugh from the crowd and will not play in South Florida… or North Florida, for that matter. Romney did not move the needle, nor did he lose supporters in droves last night. Overall, a neutral performance by the former governor. With the wind at Gingrich’s back, he needed a knockout punch and he didn’t get it.
Rick Santorum: (Previous letter grade: A -- > B+) Again, a solid debate performance last night, but not solid enough. There were no surprises form Santorum and he needs a breakout performance to drive up his fundraising and give him enough momentum to continue the campaign into February. An accomplished tactician on stage, without the input of a lively audience, there is not much in Santorum’s performance to praise. If you saw the last two debates, you saw Santorum’s debate performance last night. He was the only candidate to take it to all of his opponents, Romney, Gingrich and Ron Paul – but at this stage, he needs to give voters a reason to vote for him and not a reason to vote against one of the candidates with firmer support. I don’t think he did that. Santorum gets a good grade for his debate skills, but I would be shocked if Santorum picked up noticeable support last night.
Ron Paul: (Previous letter grade: A- -- > C+) Inarticulate, rambling Dr. Paul returned to the debate stage last night after an impressive debate in South Carolina last Thursday. There, Paul was thoughtful, deliberative and forced himself to stop talking when he had finished a thought. He demonstrated no such discipline last night. The only reason why he gets such a high grade, in fact, was because his fellow candidates ignored him the entire night. With one exception (Santorum responded to one of Paul’s assertions… Santorum had a withering response to Paul’s assertion that sanctions on Iran amounted to an act of war by listing at least six legitimate, bloody, covert and overt acts of war committed by Iran against the United States), Paul was ignored by his fellow candidates. They can afford to, Paul is not competing in Florida – but he is elsewhere. I don’t know if this was a mistake or not.
Paul is verging into Herman Cain territory – Cain embarrassed himself and made a joke of his campaign at a debate when he suggested that the solution to, among many other things, systematic Chinese copyright fraud and intellectual property theft was his 9-9-9 tax plan. Paul’s answer to just about every domestic and foreign policy challenge is “foreign wars,” or its more digestible euphemism, “overseas expenditures.” These are not substantive answers and he risks making a joke of his campaign if he cannot demonstrate more intellectual versatility on the debate stage. But, again, he is not competing in Florida so his performance last night is somewhat moot.
SumOlogy: Boring debate. You missed nothing. Newt and Mitt tie – advantage goes to Newt. Santorum is an impressive debater but gave us no reason to vote for him, so last night amounts to a lost opportunity for him. And if you think all that ails us is our obligations abroad, you will vote for Paul. If you don’t, you won’t. Guess where most of the Republican electorate falls on that issue?
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