With all due respect to your stunning insight, do you honestly believe Gingrich did so bad (or Romney so good) in Monday’s debate to change the numbers to anywhere near this extent?
As for the debate, I was concerned that Newt got a beat down from Romney and didn't adequately respond, partly due to Williams and partly due to Newt losing focus. Hopefully he will bounce back tomorrow night.
I'm not the Freeper you were asking, but i too think that could be the case. In totality, maybe the debate was a wash but my guess is that the part which stood out to most was Romney hitting Gingrich hard on possible influence peddling. Gingrich didn't answer it particularly well and it came early in a debate that started at 9 pm here in Florida (except for the panhandle which is in CST). So a lot of people may have turned it off at 9:30 to get ready for bed, leaving them with the impression that Romney scored some significant blows on Gingrich. Furthermore, adding in the anti-Newt media (including Fox News which has quite a few Republican viewers) and having Rubio coming out defending Romney and going after Newt doesn't help much either.
In any event, i think Gingrich will need to return to form in the next debate or else i fear Romney could pull out a victory here.