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Hmmm... Half way point, who won so far?

IMHO, Kasich didn’t do himself much good. All the others did well, except Rubio is definitely having a bad night, so I am happy with that. Someone stacked the crowd with Bushbots.. I think Christie did very well, Trump played it just right and didn’t put to risk his lead in N.H. so in that sense he also did great and was convincing as a Presidential hopeful, Cruz didn’t blunder by falling for the ABC hopes to snipe at Trump so Cruz projected his Shakespeare demeanor that he once had but was greyed a bit, Bush did much better than before but aftually then he went after Trump and I don’t think he came out of that very well and I don’t think anything can turn it around for him even if he rushed into the audience and saved a pregnant mother from a falling roof tile, Christie took on Rubio so effectively I think Rubio didn’t have a good night so far to say the least, Carson had some great moments but didn’t seem to get enough attention from the moderators.

Winners Christie, Trump, Cruz so far.

I think this analysis of yours stands for the whole night a good summary. I wouldn’t say though that Trump was a “winner” but Christie and Cruz were for the whole night (as you said at the halfway point). (Disclaimer I’m a Cruz supporter)

I really don’t think Trump came across very well during the whole eminent domain issue. At a certain point he was accusing those of booing him of being “establishment plants”; it may have been true (it did seem the audience was stacked with establishment types but that could have been just because this is NH we’re talking about here not exactly a conservative bastion) but the moment didn’t come off very well for him. At that moment he looked defensive and petulant.

At a certain moment he was just trying to talk over Bush instead of answer the issue; and he never did answer the charge in his defense. He just blustered his way through it. Sure he said those involved with his deals “made a lot of money”, but he never fully defended himself against the charge. He kept trying to deflect the issue likening his past plans with the Keystone pipeline efforts. The two are not the same. But I think he did a fair job of deflection as he always does; his supporters were probably not dissuaded and there probably weren’t too many who understood he was deflecting, instead of defending himself there.

I don’t think he hurt himself substantially, he won’t loose NH or anything like that. His lead is too great. But he might loose a couple percentage points over it. Kelo impacted people in that region I’m sure many there know more about it than the rest of the country. I’m sure there are more than a few there who realize building a bridge or a school or even a pipeline is not the same as building a parking lot for limosines.