I didn’t see all the debate, but Paul is not known, even amongst his (honest) supporters for being a great debater, which is sort of his appeal, no flash, all substance. :)
Flash is all Ron Paul was going for in the debate. He was absolutely incomprehensible. He made no sense at all, he just kept going on and on, throwing out sound bites that were designed to get his immature base stirred up. Paul said nothing. He had no answers for anything, just sound bites that were unrelated to the question.
I think that Paul sees himself as the Perot of 2012. He knows that he isn’t going to win, but he wants to make sure that no strong conservative wins, either. He thinks that destroying the GOP will empower the Libertarians. Paul is a nut, but he is a dangerous nut.