FOX News / WSJ

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RUNDOWN

I managed to catch most of the debate, however missed the opening 20 minutes. I was watching #1 Syracuse dispatch Pittsburgh and remain undefeated at 20-0. Priorities, people, priorities!

The Full Video: Fox News/Wall Street Journal/SC Republican Party Debate in Myrtle Beach, SC (January 16, 2012) – YouTube

The Full Transcript will be added when available.

The Lady’s Take:

Brett Baier did a great job. Juan Williams played the liberal dutifully as well. I was relieved they lost the annoying ‘times up’ sound. Jerry Seib of the WSJ was very to the point and it was refreshing.  Glad to see Iran, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid being talked about. Gingrich sold me on his idea.  Santorum tried to tear it down as irresponsible but made a mess of it and Newt dispatched him easily. Romney must have boxed at some point in his life because last night he did a lot of dodging without actually falling down. As expected, the first arrows launched all had Bain Capital written on them. Yawn.

Newt hit it out of the park on more than one occasion last night. The most epic being when he tossed the race card back in Juan Williams’ face. Romney took a lot of attacks last night. I watched the opening rounds this morning and saw him faltering a bit there. I don’t think it will do permanent damage – his comebacks to the attacks were short with small jabs back. Should he repeat this stumble-shuffle performance in the next one then I think we could see Gingrich surge to the front again, especially if he keeps having nights like tonight.  Romney regained his balance in the middle of the debate and in the last third managed to half-answer  some actual questions instead of a steady stream of rebuttals.

Santorum and Gingrich both attacked Romney on the Super PAC ads. Romney shot back at Gingrich rather succinctly on it, however Gingrich’s original line to Romney was clearly bait to me and Romney took it – hook, line and sinker. Santorum joined that attack and I think will regret it. Santorum seems to forget the new attack ad he just did on Romney though. Santorum ran luke warm for me all night. He needed to dazzle a bit here and he failed to do so.
This was Perry’s best debate ever. He came out hammering Obama on every question before getting to the meat of his answer — GOOD. This needs to happen a lot more. His answer on Obama’s clear disdain for the military was a homerun. He’s not going to regain the top spot again though.  In my opinion and if he shows poorly in SC, he needs to get out of the way.

Ron Paul had his worst debate ever and to me it looked like he was just tired and wanted to get this thing over with so he could go grab a nap. Remember, the man would be 80 when he finishes his first term if he were to be elected in November. He’s also forgetting which kooky thing he is saying and to whom as he reversed course on his Bin Laden assassination stance. The rest was typical Paul — America should apologize for all its past wrong doings and just play inside our own borders by ourselves forever! Whatever. Lamenting our past actions (or lack of action) is not a course or policy for dealing with the reality of the here and now, sir.

Winner: Gingrich

The Rest in Order: Romney, Perry, Santorum

Dead Last: Paul

The Useful Links:

• Romney Put On Defense At South Carolina Debate, As GOP Rivals Fight For Edge In State Primary | Fox News
• Newt Won  |  National Review Online
• Newt wins, Romney stumbles in debate | Washington Examiner
• Drunkblogging Tonight’s Republican Presidential Debate | Vodkapundit PJ Media
• Fox News GOP Debate South Carolina – Live Blogging | Maggie’s Notebook
• GOP Debate Reaction Round-up | Big Government
• S.C. Debate Moment of Night — Newt tackles race card play, slams it to ground | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
• FOX News-WSJ GOP South Carolina Presidential Debate | The Gateway Pundit
• WaPo Needs its Fact Checking to be Fact Checked.
• The Paulbots were out on Twitter in force.

The Video Highlights:

TPM missed having the media bias in the moderation, so they did it for us: