They have had a no clapping rule at other debates, mostly because of the Paulers, who seem to make more noise than their presence would warrant.
I think Newt's plan is to gradually turn up the heat on each subsequent debate, ending with a crescendo nearest the primary.
This is generally a good idea for building momentum but it works against Newt with early and mail-in voters. He is probably expecting his win in SC to have plenty of carry-over impact for early and mail-in voters.
And yet, they did.
Last night's debate was certainly terrible, and Newt did nothing to slap down that stupid blathering Romney.
I hope this story means that he got a good night's sleep and is ready to come back with some fire.
And I do hope he gets rid of the old lady hairdo. Not sure where that advice came from.
Compared to the debate in SC, Newt fizzled last night. I don't know why on earth he changed but change he did. He must have listened to some brilliant consultant.
If Newt keeps this up we'll be looking at 4 more years for O or his alter-ego Romney sitting in the White House.
The reason Newt fell flat is he feeds off the audience. Without the gratification, he looses his cadence
I saw something similar happen in 92. Perot made a speech to the NAACP. The audience simply didn't respond to his stock lines because they didn't resonate with them. Perot fell flat. His whole speech had the appropriate pregnant pauses to allow for some applause or verbal response at strategic places and the audience simply didn't fulfill their part of the role. It was painful. And it was at that point I knew he was toast with the general population or those who didn't resonate with his positions and ideas.
This may be the case with Newt too.