The February 2012 CNN Debate

I was beginning to miss these!

We had another debate tonight, this one on CNN and this one, again, moderated by John King. This was supposed to be Rick Santorum's moment to shine, Newt Gingrich's chance to take the race back, Mitt Romney's chance to put them all away and Ron Paul, well, just to be the gadfly that he is.

After sitting through that for two hours, this is another debate which can be a game-changer; as they were in South Carolina and Florida. Newt Gingrich had a stellar night in Mesa, Arizona. He continued on his theme of grand solutions and big ideas. There was another moment where he had a South Carolina moment, which was quite powerful. Between his comments about the auto bailout and the UAW, as well as his thoughts about education, Newt again proves that he has the strongest grasp on the issues of all the candidates. Mitt Romney's performance was acceptable, however, Rick Santorum, overall, was not. While he gave some strong responses, his body language exhibited weakness; whether the way he was slouching in the chairs with the "way too low desks" or the fact that in confronting Mitt Romney, he did not make eye contact. Ron Paul, well, was just Ron Paul. While he tends to articulate some good economic theory, his foreign policy vision is flat-out dangerous, and he proved that tonight by talking about Iran.

Debates are the game-changers in this election cycle, however, the other networks need to take notes from the Fox News Channel in how to structure these:

1) What is up with the sets? The "grade school desks" which fronted the candidates minimized their structure and did not look good on television (think Kennedy/Nixon 1960) Podiums, please!

2) The questions were irrelevant: No talk about job creation, ObamaCare, the high cost of energy, or corruption of this administration from Fast and Furious to Solyndra. When Iran was mentioned, it wasn't heavily focused upon. This debate was nothing more than CNN giving a lead to the president to run from his record, come the general election, by focusing on issues that are irrelevant to the survival of the United States of America.

3) Following up on #2, the candidates must frame their answers to comparing the Conservative Solution to what Obama has done in his presidency. Not only does it tie the president to his record, but it puts the left and the right side-by-side so that the voters could see how Conservatism prevails. It also does not allow the Mainstream Media to get away with setting the agenda.

4) The Republicans must always remember to NEVER ACCEPT A PREMISE THE LEFT PUTS FORWARD! This applies to the Religious Freedom argument (e.g. "contraception") and the border (e.g. "illegal immigration"). Republicans should never be hemmed in by the left and by accepting their premise, they do this and make it that much harder to win, which in turn, makes it harder for Conservatism to win.

We are far from done in this primary process, and it will be interesting to see the impact of this debate in the upcoming primaries, and then on Super Tuesday, taking place on March 6.