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Neither will I. But there's no denying how polished his answers and appearance were tonight. McCain had a few good moments but mostly wasn't connecting that well. And Romney was off his game. What we saw tonight is that Rudi's handlers are already shifting to general election mode, following Hitlery's lead. It's a tactic to diminish all the other candidates. It's shaping up as a very polished campaign machine.

All Rudy has to do now is keep his supporters from finding out his extreme liberal history and current views and he's got the nomination. He just has to continue his polished look, tell a few Hillary jokes, and cross his fingers that his supporters aren't going to dig much deeper in the past than 9/11.

He just has to continue his polished look, tell a few Hillary jokes, and cross his fingers that his supporters aren't going to dig much deeper in the past than 9/11.

What struck me is how really solid he was during the debate, switching modes emotionally, drawing people in as he set up his phrases, how he didn't make pauses or stutters, no distracting gestures, just a total solid debater. And a tough New York prosecutor is of course going to have that quality.

But where we can take hope is his post-debate interview with Sean-boy. Right back to his usual reptilian level of appeal.

I thought Mitt was off tonight. His hair wasn't right, he seemed off-balance from a few of the attacks though he rallied well and stood his ground. But what impressed me was how well he did in the post-debate. Like this morning with Schieffer on the CBS interview, Romney comes across well in person. When you look back at the influence on past elections from candidate interviews on Oprah or especially the sweetheart interviews the candidates and spouses get on Sixty Minutes, you can see how Romney could win out on personal skill. There is something about the confidence and the way Romney talks on finance that I think is his real strong suit. On finance and organization, Romney leaves the rest in the dust. Which is why he's ten times as rich as the rest of them and didn't make any of his money off government contracts or contacts.

Fred had a few good moments, especially when he lit into Rudi. There is something though that Fred, well, that he's been out of politics for too long or that debate isn't his strong suit. I noted he had a good command of facts and mustered them effectively. In instances where his legal skills could come to bear, he did well. Fred's biggest problem is that the other campaign's are so much better organized, the other candidates with more recent debate experience. Watching on TV, it's easy to forget that debating is like target practice: you have to do it constantly to be good at it. Fred may yet turn it around but he's short on time. I noticed Fred was really pushing his pace faster during his exchange with Sean & Alan and doing well. So Fred is working at it and I think he's working pretty hard. He might yet pull it together.