WHO WON THE (REPUBLICAN) DEBATE? …. By Dick Shriver

I was struck, not so much by who won, but who lost. Clearly, Tim Pawlenty’s incessant, petulant and personal attacks on Michele Bachman improved her ranking and diminished his. Pawlenty was the big loser during the debate and may be forced out of the race sooner rather than later. Why a smart man like Pawlenty, who has much to crow about in terms of personal accomplishments as governor, should pursue this negative campaign is a mystery; maybe his pollsters tell him it’s a good tactic, but any republican candidate attacking another candidate below the belt at this point is acting in bad taste. Furthermore, Pawlenty came across as being mean-spirited, a potential death knell in politics which he must have avoided in state elections for governor.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem to be time for Senator Rick Santorum. A smart person, for sure, but it is hard for me to picture him as being elected by the entire nation. This good man's moment will come, but not this time around.

Congressman Ron Paul, despite frequent and loud cheers from what must have been a predominantly young audience from Iowa State University, is an embarrassment to serious republicans. His anti-war stance, his nutty support of Iran, and his tangled rantings in general make one wonder how he ever got as far as he has in politics. He lost his cool as well as his chances of being nominated.

Jon Huntsman, a decent man with a decent career and decent political views is likely to garner only an indecent number of votes for president. The debate showed his low key approach to be in such sharp contrast with the other candidates that it is hard to imagine he has the passion and energy to match to win the nomination.

In the winners circle, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich parried and thrusted his way to get the best of the press which spent more time on petty internecine republican issues than on how republicans can best beat Obama (Given that “The Press” at this debate was Fox News, the framework for the debate seemed counterproductive to assessing conservative views and candidates to counter the Obama bullet train in the first place). It was a good night for Gingrich.

Michele Bachmann, skewered by Pawlenty because she hasn’t accomplished anything, countered by highlighting her unwavering stands on principle, and her battles against former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; she showed herself to be a very determined, passionate patriot which means a lot to conservatives today. It was a good night for Bachmann.

Michael Cain was so successful in differentiating himself from President Obama, based on his successful business career that, for him, it was a very good night.

Mitt Romney, meanwhile, had a great night. He was the only candidate who managed to articulate his entire seven-point platform for turning around the economy in clear, plain language (Pawlenty took an oblique swipe at Romney when he offered to cook dinner for anyone anywhere who could state what Obama’s plan to fix the US economy was; he then gratuitously enhanced his offer to include mowing a lawn, but in case Romney won his bet, the size of the lawn was limited to one acre).

It's still a long way until primaries, but Romney, Cain, Bachmann and Gingrich showed they could likely go the distance.