I watched that debate and wow was it entertaining. I agree with your summary.
1. Newt & Mitt were going at it again.
2. Rick Santorum is sticking to the issues
and seems like the only candidate you
could take seriously.
3. Ron Paul had a good response to the space
program. He thought it would be a good idea
to send some politicians to the moon.

Cubby.

Mitt finally got in an answer on Romneycare that I liked. When he told everyone what the vote was for passage he finally exposed a talking point (that he didn’t follow-up on, however) that I believe he should use in addition to his others. When you are in the bluest of blue states and you have a plan that passes 220-2 (or whatever crazy number it was), you have a guaranteed veto override in place. All he could do (and did) was make it better than originally proposed by limiting what it would do, an he’s articulated those points before.

And frankly, if Beaver Cleaver (Rick Santorum) has medical savings accounts as his only contribution to health care reform in his resume, that isn’t going to help him in an electorate that cannot afford to redirect any dollars away from keeping their heads above water in this economy.

Finally, Mitt was all over Gingrich like white on rice all night long. He had answers for all of Newt’s charges since South Carolina, was no longer apologetic (or silent) on being wealthy, and really zinged the Pillsbury Doughboy when he got Newt to once again bring up Mitt’s blind investments in Fannie and Freddie (through mutual funds, not direct investment). That “Have you looked at you OWN investments? line had Gingrich looking like “Oh crap, what does he have on me now?” look. And Newt didn’t have a good answer, which was largely drowned out by crowd noise anyway. Newt’s good at slash and burn debate techniques, but Mitt showed the benefits of a deft touch using the “death by a thousand cuts” strategy.