Caught the replay. My 2 cents:
* Panel as a whole sounded good
* Winner: Romney. Sorry, I know he’s despised here, but he’s manifestly the best at this. Unflappable.
* Loser: Ron Paul. Goes off the rails completely with the border fence and trashes Reagan’s legacy. Why Ron?
* Thumbs up: Perry - proves he’s a better communicator than Bush (thank God), takes plenty of jabs, but does reasonably well despite (slightly disconcerting) slow/halting pace of speaking and clunky overreliance on notes. Gives refreshingly honest assessment of Social Security, despite the obvious political risk (which I trust (hope) is principled candor and not political naiveté).
*Thumbs down: John Hunstman - liberal car salesman routine with smarmy view of conservatives/man of the world routine becomes even more grating. Bachmann - Couldn’t breakout and was marginalized; $2 gas claim still absurd. Gingrich - Tough guy routine losing its spontaneity; ignored for most of the debate. Cain - Likeable and good slogans, but appears to be lacking in substance. Santorum - irrelevant.
Just my opinion.
The two dollar gas thing is not so absurd. The price of oil is —like the price of gold—psychological. If Obama and Biden were to die tomorrow and be replaced by Boner, and all the stops were removed, there would be a huge rush to increase production in the future.