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ABC Saturday Night Republican Debate - Who Won? Who Lost?

There have been many debates this year which even though it gets to be a bit much is probably a good thing. Yes, we have heard what they all say a lot of times but every now and then something new or different comes out.

And usually (except for Rick Perry's stumbles a while back) nothing really changes from the debate but this time it appears there actually were winners and losers. This is how we saw it.

1) There were only six on the stage last night. Herman Cain was gone and Jon Huntsman was not there because Jon Huntsman did not get invited to the Iowa debate. The story is that he did not meet the minimum criteria of 5% support in any national poll or Iowa poll. Well, how about that? The GOP candidate the media actually likes did not get invited. I bet they could not stand it! With only six on stage we got to hear a little bit more from each candidate even though Mitt and Newt were given the bulk of the time. Sometimes you even forgot Santorum and Perry were there because the moderators kept it going between Romney and Gingrich.

2) If you were wondering if things would be different now that Gingrich is the front runner in many polls it was different. It was very clear all the candidates think Newt is the front runner as they ALL attacked him many times. It is interesting how when it was Bachmann surging they attacked her, Perry and Cain the same. Now it is Newt's turn to take the heat and he took quite a bit last night.

3) In the past this seemed to be exactly what Romney wanted, the others attacking the "new" front runner and knocking them down for him. Tonight was different though. Romney actually (although hesitantly) started the attacks on Gingrich right away. Many feel that Romney is getting worried that he truly has lost his front runner status this time to Newt. All the others that surged to the front were really political newcomers. Bachmann a Congresswomen for six years and members of Congress never win a parties nomination anymore. Perry, although a 10 year Governor has no national experience and was not good at the debates right from the beginning. Cain had no political experience.

Newt is different. He is the former Speaker of the House (second in line to be President) and lead the Republican Revolution in the 1990's battling Bill Clinton. Even if you don't like him you have to admit he is a political powerhouse and a historical figure in American politics. Newt is a real threat to Romney.

4) Newt clearly came out on top of Romney in this debate. He took Romney's opening attack and turned it right around in his face. Romney claimed Newt was a career politician unlike himself and Newt quickly pointed out that Romney would have been and wanted to be a career politician but "lost" his election bid for Senate to Ted Kennedy.

Newt seemed to have no problem all night defending and explaining the attacks on him from Romney and the rest and we saw nothing last night that would suggest he hurt himself. In many eyes he probably increased or solidified his level of support.

In one instance Mitt tried to make fun of Gingrich for his support of a lunar base and mining material from the moon. Suggesting with his tone that spending money on a lunar base would be a joke and he said he would not support it. Newt answered that decisively saying he fully supported space exploration as a vital part of keeping America strong and at the forefront a technology. We believe that scored well with conservatives.

Mitt also seems to have hurt himself when he attempted to make a $10,000 bet with Rick Perry about the wording in his book. That is probably the number on thing the media is talking about today stating that it shows how Romney is a rich person and out of touch with the middle class suggesting such a large amount of money for a bet.

5) Rick Perry did well again but as with the rest of the candidates seemed to be playing second fiddle to the Mitt and Newt show. Perry made his pitch for a part time congress and slammed Obama for his handling of the drone that Iran captured.

Same can be said about Ron Paul as he made some strong points and got support from the Iowa crowd. He attacked Newt saying the only person up on stage that everyone would agree has a consistently conservative record was him! Very true. In fact, Rick Perry even praised Ron Paul at one moment. Ron Paul then "thanked" Perry, Newt, Romney and others for finally seeing things his way which got a positive response from the audience also.

Of course, the ABC moderator Diane Sawyer wanted to make it a Mitt and Newt show and that is part of the problem with these 'made for TV dramas'.

6) There is not much time left until Iowa and the fact is unless Gingrich makes some kind of major mistake in the next debate later this week or in a speech on the campaign trail he appears to be positioned to do very well in the January Iowa caucus and primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. If Gingrich wins three of those four events he may be very hard to stop.

7) Oh yea! Rick Santorum was there too! We forgot...and that seems to be his problem. His only hope is to too surprise in Iowa. He has been there for a long time working hard so who knows.

The next debate is this coming Thursday night, December 15th at 9pm EST on Fox News unless you count the Huntsman/Gingrich one on one debate on December 12th at Saint Anselm College. You kind of wonder why Gingrich would do this debate as it only seems to help Huntsman but maybe he thinks if Huntsman does better in New Hampshire that would take away votes from Romney which gives him a better chance to win the state or place a strong second.

Share your thoughts with us on what took place last night and what it all means.

Tags: $10,000 bet, ABC Republican Debate, Career Politician, Lunar base, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Romney $10,000 bet, Ron Paul

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Permalink Reply by Jim Delaney on December 11, 2011 at 2:27pm

Nice summary.

The ease with which Newt confidently deflected attacks was especially noteworthy, suggesting to me that he actually believes what he says (refreshing) and that he has amply studied the subject of those statements before uttering them, e.g. the moon base, children learning the work ethic and legalizing the status of well-established illegal over-stayers. The conventional media inclination was to characterize such statements as debilitating gaffes, a sign of indiscipline. So much for conventional media wisdom. I also thought many of the attacks came across as either muted or contrived, but, as said, he passed the test easily. As usual, Newt handled the questions and attacks intelligently, credibly and confidently.

I thought Perry redeemed himself, but not sufficiently to make any real headway. He's out. Santorum and Bachman are out. Paul will ride the crest of Libertarian support to the end, but to no avail. Unless there is a major faux pas on the part of Newt, or unless his lack of ground organization does him in, Newt will be nominated and will go on to clean Obama's clock, thus eliminating any real hope of an Obama re-election. And thank God for that.

Just a thought: how about a Newt-Paul ticket? Or is that a tad avant-garde? Such a team would certainly serve to keep both players under control, more realistic but closer to the Constitution and a firmer commitment to seriously reducing gov't and debt. In any event, I'd like to see Paul as either the Sec of Treasury, Bachman Sec of HHS, Romney Sec of Commerce, Santorum Sec of Interior. Lincolnesque (keeping your friends close, but your political challengers closer) or is it a naive pipedream? Anyway, just thinking outside the proverbial box.

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Permalink Reply by Admin on December 11, 2011 at 2:40pm

Michael Savage said that one day on the radio, that the cabinet should be all the other candidates in the race. An interesting notion except it never seems to happen because the person who wins the Presidency wants 'their' people, people they know in their with them, not competitors from the race. Except in the case of VP, if they feel the second place candidate brings something to the table as Reagan did with Bush they often pick them.

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Permalink Reply by Debbie Myers on December 11, 2011 at 5:25pm

I know that there are alot of manipulated polls out there, especially the major networks, but Ron Paul is polling in front of all the others & in some cases by 65%. They can continue to ignore the Congressman but this is starting to work in his favor as more & more people lose confidence in mainstream media.

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Permalink Reply by Donna Grace on December 11, 2011 at 8:04pm

I would like to see Paul get VP, if not the POTUS nomination. I definitely do agree however that when RP said let's just "talk to them" regarding Iran, that is cause to believe he does not entirely "get it" regarding Islam and its threat to not only America but the world. If we had Allen West on board, and Newt in there, our foreign policy should be secure. Newt at the top however, bothers me, I see him as a very competent "player". Love some of his speeches, but to back those up, he has TOO many BIG GOVERNMENT ideas & past votes.
I have seen many references to Ron Paul as kooky, and his libertarian following as zealots, etc., and I have seen blatant dislike for him from sources I normally trust. But in this demogaguing of RP i hardly see any scary facts given to support that. Just the attitude. I suppose it could be resulting from RP's stance on states vs federal powers (that the "war on drugs" is a farce, essentially legalizing pot & drugs on the federal level anyway; etc). The general attitude behind the ignoring or empty insults reminds me of a quote, "Ridicule is the first hint of an argument without basis." Really appreciated how this RightFace summary did not stoop to that. Sure will be interesting to see who comes out on top when the fat lady sings.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Piper on December 12, 2011 at 2:05am

Not in my opinion, but with many, one big problem with Ron Paul winning the nomination is his age. Ron Paul supporters get mad and say that is not true but the facts are the facts and many people in this country want someone younger to be their President. No one since Reagan has won that was older and RP would be much older than Reagan was when he was elected. Dole lost, McCain lost. Only a much younger Bush won. Reagan was almost 70 when he took office and was the oldest President ever. RP is already 76 right now. Yes, RP has many young supporters but that is not what I am saying.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Kilgore on December 12, 2011 at 2:08am

Newt is going to win the nomination in my opinion. I do not think he will fall like the others did. Plus, "who" is strong enough to over take him? Not Romney, not RP, not Rick Perry. Romney is just not strong enough to get it done. His hope was that everyone else in the race would self destruct and he would win the nomination by default. Newt is peaking at just the right time. The vote will tell the tale but we may have to hope that the independents will forgive Newt enough to vote for him over Obama.

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Permalink Reply by Debbie Myers on December 12, 2011 at 10:55am

My grandfather was very productive until he passed at 98 yrs old.

Keith Piper said:

Not in my opinion, but with many, one big problem with Ron Paul winning the nomination is his age. Ron Paul supporters get mad and say that is not true but the facts are the facts and many people in this country want someone younger to be their President. No one since Reagan has won that was older and RP would be much older than Reagan was when he was elected. Dole lost, McCain lost. Only a much younger Bush won. Reagan was almost 70 when he took office and was the oldest President ever. RP is already 76 right now. Yes, RP has many young supporters but that is not what I am saying.