No one touched John McCain. No one. Fred Thompson whacked Mike Huckabee a couple of times. Mitt Romney was nowhere to be seen.
McCain wins as the untouched front-runner. Fred for showing life. And Huck for handling some tough questions with grace.
Tags: Debates, Fred Thompson, Huckabee, McCain
Two facts captured for me how Mitt Romney’s campaign perceived his debate performance.
First, only two surrogates were in the spin room: Tom Tancredo and Bay Buchanan. None of the national surrogates in town. No Senator Judd Gregg, Romney New Hampshire campaign chairman. Where was Judd?
That leads me to my second fact. Judd Gregg was the first person to leave the debate. The first one. Not the second. The first.
The test of a debate is what is fixated in people’s heads. Those moments will be, almost certainly, the attacks on Mitt Romney.
John McCain just needed to tread water. Not only did he do that, but he looked dignified except for, perhaps, going a little too far on poking Romney once.
Fred Thompson ended up sounding like the conservative voice on the stage. If McCain wins on Tuesday, conservatives are going to need some place to go. Fred will compete for that. His goal tonight was to be that voice. He accomplished.
Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee sounded fine.
Romney cratered.
Tags: Debates, New Hampshire
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