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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Post Debate Analysis

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:38 PM

I have no doubt Frank Luntz will come on TV in a few minutes and contradict all this, but here are my initial thoughts.

The big winner tonight was Fred Thompson. He got his name out there, while also avoiding a fairly boring debate. I don't think this hurt him one bit, and, in fact, I think not being here turned out to be smart.

The only memorable exchange I can recall from tonight was the spat between Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

Speaking of Ron Paul, he got a lot more face time tonight than ever before. He made his case well. Look, either you agree with him, or you don't. But at least he got to make his case tonight. He had more opportunities than Brownback, Tancredo, or Hunter. Clearly, he has many supporters in the room. The question is whether getting his message out helps him or hurts him ...

John McCain did well tonight. It wasn't an amazingly great night for McCain, but he seemed more energetic than in some of the previous debates. New Hampshire is McCain country, and I am one of the few analysts out there who still believes he can win the Granite State.

Rudy, Romney, and Huckabee just held firm tonight, not gaining or losing ground. Rudy and Huckabee have had great performances on other nights, so in that respect, tonight was a step backwards.

But the bottom line is that tonight's debate lacked truly great moments.

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Ex-tex writes:	Thursday, September, 06, 2007 9:17 AM
Matt, have I mentioned lately that...
... YOU are my favorite TH blogger! FDT the next POTUS! Yeah baby!
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JimBob writes:	Thursday, September, 06, 2007 1:09 AM
Thompson Bombed on Leno
Audience was silent when he said going into Iraq was the right thing to do. The American people don't want a 3rd Bush term. The GOP is in real trouble.
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Jake Benson writes:	Thursday, September, 06, 2007 12:43 AM
Huckabee Stole The Show
The only memorable part of the debate was the exchange between Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. That is exactly why Mike Huckabee won this debate. People will call it for their guy, but if you ask them tomorrow what they remember — it will be Mike Huckabee.
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Jacqui writes:	Wednesday, September, 05, 2007 11:50 PM
Still Undecided
I had not seen or heard Ron Paul before tonight and now I've heard enough to not want to hear or see him again. I was disappointed in Rudy and found myself questioning Romney on his Iraq view. I guess Fred was right to pass this one up.
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Paul08 writes:	Wednesday, September, 05, 2007 11:42 PM
The Debate
I agree with Ron Paul and intend on voting for him when the primary comes to my state. The rest of the candidates were boring or not given the opportunity to speak enough to be interesting and show their differences with the 'anointed' frontrunners.
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Pericolasus writes:	Wednesday, September, 05, 2007 11:14 PM
Amen...
That was awful. The gamble might very well have paid off for thompson tonight. Now we get to see what he's made of.
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