Clear winner? Fred Thompson. He was commanding, funny, articulate. His rat-a-tat-tat answer deconstructing Mike Huckabee's record was incredibly effective - a good actor can certainly memorize his lines. But Fred was good off the cuff, too. He does, at times, seem uninterested, especially when others are talking. He won the debate, but those cutaway shots don't help him. Still, Thompson has to have made strides among conservatives who are not yet sold on John McCain. He could have done more to engage McCain directly - he did so once, but it was almost passive. Fredemption?
John McCain was a strong second. He is now the frontrunner, a position that has given him trouble in the past - both in 2000 and early in this cycle. But if he is ill at ease with this status, he is not showing it at all. McCain seemed as relaxed as I've seen him in this format. He is not often the most articulate man on the stage or the most fluid, but he was very solid tonight. His answer on how he would have handled the situation with Iran could not have been better had it been scripted in advance. He reminds people often that he was for the surge before it was cool to be for the surge. It was interesting to see Rudy Giuliani, who needs to mitigate McCain's strengths on national security, play me-too on the surge. McCain said earlier that he needed to "own the surge," and he surely did tonight.
Huckabee's performance tonight was like his campaign: He did well on religion and poorly on everything else. Oddly enough, that could be enough to help him in South Carolina. His religion answer generated a ton of applause and could be a harbinger of the support evangelicals might deliver him on primary day.
Rudy Giuliani did fine, but didn't do anything to distinguish himself. Most of his answers were forgettable.
In my view, Mitt Romney struggled for the third debate in a row. It's enough to make me wonder if his subpar performances thus far have affected his confidence levels.
