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Hey, what do you know, I was essentially right.

Winner: Newt - The line of the night was by far the “Ted Kennedy” line. That stung.

Loser: Romney - He was pi$$ed after the TK remark, never regained his balanced, then everyone went after them.

Surprises: (2) - Santorum - Very strong answers, went on attack, but was able to bring it home with complements in the final question. Got a lot more TV time thanks to Huntsman not being there. Could really benefit from the Trump debate
Perry - See, what I tell ya. He did draw blood on Romney when everyone else was, but tried to have that “above the fray” moment on the foreign policy Q talking about the captured drone.

OK: Bachmann. Hey, the real story of tonight is that all those detractors saying she never goes after Mitt, well she did tonight. Staffers finally let her pull the gloves off. I knew she’d take heat over bringing up Herman Cain with her previous criticism of 9-9-9. A part of me though thinks it was in reaction to the “good ole boys club” on stage. Not a single person acknowledged her in the final question. Sometimes, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. I was just glad to see her go after Romney, but in honesty, Santorum got the better answers. But there was a big time drop-off between the 1st and 2nd hours. From 9:45-10:40, Michele got 2 questions. I was upset she didn’t get to answer the immigration question. On the Israel question, like Santorum mentioned, Romney had the right angle, but I know Michele didn’t want to acknowledge that because it’s finally come clear to her that people think she’s a shrill for Romney, so she went down a whole other tangent. That and the poverty question were the only two questions she got in the second hour. It was a big drop off from the first hour when the time was more equal.

Ron Paul is a 9/11 truther and American Apologist. I don’t care how many fiscal plans he comes out with that are sound, they will never eclipse his lunatic foreign policy.

Overall, nothing changed. Newt will be in a double digit lead with Romney losing another point or two. But I suspect there may be a slight movement among Perry/Bachmann/Santorum voters to make one final push to stop Newt. At this point, I don’t know who that person could be, but if that Trump debate goes on as planned, it may really be an opportunity for Santorum.