For the most part no one make any mistakes and gaffs tonight. All acquitted themselves pretty well. The general consensus of the panel on MSNBC was that on the economic issues Romney came out on top. I’m not sure I agree with that but he did do well. McCain seemed to be in a daze at the beginning but he warmed up as he went along.

At the outset, the MSNBC panel seemed to think the candidates would take the opportunity to gang up on Romney since he’s the front runner going in. I thought they might gang up on McCain. Ultimately, however, no one was ganged up on and it might have been the most civil of all the Republican debates to date.

Little was said tonight about border security or the war against Islam fascism. The primary focus of the questioning, after Russert asserted how bad the Republican Party has been, was on the issue of the economy. Huckabee pointed out that of all the candidates on the stage, he was the only one saying there was a problem back in New Hampshire. He said that all the other candidates claimed the economy was sound then.

On the question of whether the candidates agreed with the stimulus package that has been agreed upon, most said they did but they’d go farther. Only Huckabee questioned the package, asking where the money would come from and assuming we’d borrow it from China. He said he wondered whose economy would be helped the most. Romney even followed up on that later and gave credit to Huckabee for bringing up the question of China as a competitor to America. Paul also took issue with the stimulus package but he takes issue with virtually everything.

To be fair, Paul did make some good points tonight. He pointed out yet again that the Republican Party used to be for the elimination of the Department of Education but now they work to grow it. I’ve said the same thing many times. On most domestic issues I’m in agreement with Paul but on foreign policy I still think he’s plain dangerous.

An interesting portion of the debate was when the candidates asked question of each other. Only Romney used the opportunity to make a speech in the process of asking a question. In fact, it appeared for a minute or so that he didn’t understand what he was supposed to be doing. Interestingly McCain chose to ask Huckabee about the FairTax. Specifically he asked what Huckabee’s response was to critics who claim that the FairTax would unfairly hurt those at the bottom of the economic ladder. That’s about as softball a question as I could imagine anyone asking and Huckabee handled it easily. McCain listened like he really wanted to understand. I still wonder whether it was a blunder on McCain’s part or whether he deliberately set Huckabee up to give a good answer in the hope that he would gain points over Romney.

Ron Paul asked McCain a very esoteric question about a panel of economic advisors. It was tedious and seemed intended to make McCain look ignorant on economic issues. McCain managed to answer the question without dealing with the panel Paul mentioned and, indeed, I’m sure not one in 100 in the audience had any idea what Paul was talking about.

The unifying theme of the evening was opposition to Hillary Clinton. Most of the candidates had something to say about Clinton and several were specifically asked about campaigning against her and Bill if they became the nominee. Probably the best line of the night was Romney’s response to that question when he said he didn’t want to think about Bill Clinton in the White House again with nothing to do.

One of the most interesting moments actually followed the debate when Chris Mathews was questioning Giuliani about the second amendment. Mathews was incredulous that Giuliani would actually believe the second amendment means what it says. He seemed to think that Giuliani didn’t really believe that but was just saying it because he was running for the Republican nomination. One could easily see how Mathews might fell that way considering Giuliani’s approach to guns as mayor or New York City.

I don’t think there were any big winners or losers tonight. My candidate, Huckabee, did pretty well I thought, but so did the rest. I don’t expect this debate will have changed a lot of minds, though it might influence some in Florida who have yet to make up their minds. As I said above, it was probably the best MSNBC debate to date and i enjoyed watching it. They made a good decision in excluding Chris Mathews from the questioning.

This isn’t really an analysis post, rather, it’s some of my impressions for tonight.

The biggest problem with John McCain is his inherent inability to admit that he has even been wrong.  He’s implied he was wrong on immigration reform by switching his position to border enforcement, yet he steadfastly refuses to admit that what he supported previously was amnesty.  Chris Wallace hammered this point home and McCain still claimed he’d never supported amnesty and never would.  Now McCain says he just wants to move on.  Well Senator, admit the facts and moving on will be far easier.

Huckabee was again asked about his support of in-state tuition for the children of illegals and whether his recently announced plan for immigration didn’t “punish the children for the sins of the parents” just like denying in-state tuition would.  Huckabee vehemently denied that it would.  This is an issue on which I disagree with Huckabee and his response to the question seemed particularly strained.  He did, however, point out that Reagan signed the amnesty bill in the 80s.

The fact is, everyone one of the candidates in the forum except Fred Thompson, have significant weaknesses on the issue illegal immigration.  Giuliani ran a sanctuary city, McCain supported the amnesty bill, Huckabee supports in-state tuition and Romney had illegals working at his house.

Thompson’s point was clearly the best.  Our policy must not encourage more illegal immigration.

Overall I think all the candidates came out okay tonight.  No one committed a big gaff and no one hit a home run.  The focus group on FOX said Romney clearly won.  I completely disagree with them and so did all the pundits.  It was a great informational forum and I think the real winner was the voters who watched.  If anyone lost tonight it was probably John McCain.  He didn’t look good on immigration or taxes.  On taxes he still maintains his vote against the Bush tax cuts was right because he wanted to reign in spending.  I’m with him on spending but that’s like a drowning man refusing to raise his nose out of the water because he can’t also raise his mouth.  Okay, drown then!

As for my candidate, Huckabee, he did fine overall.  He clearly defended himself once again against Romney’s “half truths” as Huckabee put it.  He isn’t likely to win New Hampshire but he will do good enough there and perhaps better than expected.  He’s in this race for the foreseeable future and he will be a force to be reckoned with.

Tomorrow I’ll make my predictions for the New Hampshire primary.

McCain wasn’t left out of the party, taking on Romney’s record and accusing Romney of distorting not only his own record but McCain’s as well.  In the first round all questions were asked of Romney, McCain, Thompson and Giuliani.  No questions were asked of any of the other candidates in the first 15 minutes of the debate.

Ron Paul got his time, primarily I think, because he says such nutty things and that is good for ratings.  He drew boos from the audience on several occasions.

The clear winner of the evening, in my view, was Mike Huckabee.  Readers may object that since I’ve come out in support of Huckabee my view is biased.  While it is true that I have a bias, the fact is, Huckabee answered every question resolutely and thoroughly and never stumbled once.  That cannot be said for anyone else in the debate.  Indeed, in the unscientific FOXNews poll following the debate, Huckabee won solidly.  Yes, I know, Ron Paul won the numbers but everyone actually paying attention understands that Ron Paul’s numbers must be filtered out of any poll that isn’t scientific since the RonBots come out en mass to every poll out there, slanting the polls horribly when good polls show Paul with numbers in the low single digits.

Huckabee got his first question 20 minutes into the debate with a question leading him to attack Giuliani on the abortion issue.  Huckabee declined to take the debate, instead declaring his was more interested in fight for his beliefs rather than fighting against the other candidates.  He went on to articulate strong pro life position which stood in contrast to Giuliani’s pro choice position.

McCain didn’t look bad tonight but he is, for all intents and purposes, out of this race.  And he really has been for some time.  His voice adds an interesting dimension to the debate but he has no chance at the nomination.

Thompson certainly outperformed his last debate outing, which wasn’t too difficult to do.  Indeed, Thompson did pretty well but he has a bad habit of referring to his notes repeatedly during a single answer and that just doesn’t look very presidential.  He appears to be less than prepared.  As an early Fred head I’ve come to the conclusion that Thompson simply isn’t ready to run for President.  Considering how long he had to prepare while he waited to make his announcement, this is a real disappointment.

For his part, at least Giuliani speaks his mind.  I disagree with him on a number of issues but as he told the values voters, he’s not trying to claim he believes things he doesn’t.  Right now Giuliani appears to be the man to beat and I very much hope he is beaten in the primary.  His foreign policy ideas and fiscal ideas are wonderful but his views on social issues are so foreign to conservatives that it is hard for me to imagine him winning the nomination.  Time will tell but I still do not believe conservatives will nominate him.

Duncan Hunter also did well for himself.  I’m not sure why he’s has so much trouble catching on.  I think he’d make a fine President but he just hasn’t caught on.  Lack of name recognition has probably been his biggest problem and we’ll probably see him again in future presidential campaigns.  But he’s toast in this one.

Tom Tancredo is always interesting but he has the reputation of being a one trick pony.  Tancredo’s main issue is illegal immigration and that resonates with a lot of Americans.  But he doesn’t come across as serious on a lot of other issues.  I like Tancredo but FOXNews’ post debate poll didn’t even give him 1%.  Viewers didn’t seem to notice he was there.

What can I say about Ron Paul?  He made a very good point about the cost of healthcare.  He said healthcare was the only industry where technology results in higher prices, not lower.  Excellent point.  In truth I find much agreement with Paul on domestic issues.  But when he begins talking about the empire, I just want to reach out and slap some sense into the man.  He appears to genuinely believe that the United States in engaged in building an empire, I assume, like the old British empire.  Never mind that the US has never engaged in such activity and isn’t doing so now.  By his reasoning we should be running Germany and Japan today.  We defeated those countries and then rebuilt them.  That is precisely what we are trying to do in Iraq.  But you wouldn’t know it listening to Paul.

It will be interesting to see what the polls say over the next few days.  I believe we’ll see Huckabee tick up a few more points.  Thompson has to fear him and Romney is likely starting to worry as well.  Indeed, with Romney, Thompson and McCain fighting over the conservative moniker, Huckabee may be poised to take the lead.  Two months ago I wouldn’t have given much of a chance.  Today, I think the nomination is within his reach.