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Yep. I am far from sanguine about Cain's 9-9-9 plan, far from sanguine, but Romney et al's attack based on there being state sales taxes was intellectually dishonest--not the only lie Mitt got caught in last night (I am specifically referring to his claim that he got the "mandate idea" from Newt).

The "state sales tax" issue is a complete red herring--you pay that in addition to the federal income tax and payroll tax, just as you would pay it in addition to any national sales tax--the net result is a zeroing out of any net outlay (or nearly so).

Cain was Cain's worst enemy last night. His "apples and oranges" argument was almost incoherent. I understood what he was trying to say, but he did a very poor job of explaining it and his saying again and again, "go to my website and read my explanation," while perfectly reasonable, is not a way to win a debate or to score points--and as distasteful as having to "score points" in a debate like this is, it does matter. Appearances matter, the ability to articulate clearly and concisely what you believe and what you advocate matters. Each stumble matters--as we have seen with Rick Perry's rise and fall.

Well put. I’ve seen about ten comments on this thread already that are intellectually above anything that was said last night. Our guys are either dumber than we thought, or they think we are too dumb to follow an adult argument.

Very very disappointing evening all around.