I missed most of the first half, I'm not as cynical as Nigel tonight, and my browser crashed right in the middle of a previous draft of this post, so just some brief notes (I'll be hitting a transcript for Incredibly Stupid Statement of the Day research):
Winner: McCain. Nobody else came close. He was calmer this time around, managed a presidential demeanor that none of the others could muster, got downright noble in defending America's immigrant heritage, and even though I disagree with him intensely on Iraq, he came off as sincere, caring, knowledgeable and committed on it.
Biggest losers: Romney and Giuliani. Neither one seemed to connect much (except perhaps Romney on "the Mormon question"), and of course they had the most to lose.
Breakouts: None of the also-rans managed to nose into the front-runner pack. Ron Paul made some sound points (and got applause on a par with the front-runners a few times), but he didn't take any scalps. The other candidates seem to have adopted a "let's all pretend he isn't here" strategy. Can't say I blame them. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but Giuliani has noticeably gone into "circling the drain" mode since his tangle with Paul.
Most embarrassingly anti-American moment: When all of the candidates were asked if they'd allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the US armed forces, and not one of them had the guts to say yes.
Most freakish candidate on the stage: Tancredo, hands down. He needs to shut his cakehole about illegal immigrants until he discloses just which planet he's from ... 'cause it sure as hell ain't Earth.
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