Reagan Library GOP Debate

Another debate, probably another Romney win. I think that was the most I've seen of any debate, and for a lot of it I was just so frustrated with McCain's smearing of Romney's record on Iraq. Romney handled it well, but he really should have taken the gloves off last night. I'm afraid it might be too little too late. From what I'm reading around the web, the only people who are really excited about Romney's performance are people who are already all pro-Romney. Otherwise, most people seemed to conclude that the debate felt flat and shouldn't have been held the night after a major primary.

I'll admit, Romney felt clearly superior to McCain. McCain was evasive on a lot of the questions, particularly when asked about whether or not he'd vote on his own amnesty bill, and the economy. But Romney performing well in the debates is nothing new to the campaign. He's probably had above average performances in all the debates across the board and where has that gotten him thus far?

This comes from the guys at Powerline. I really liked this post on the difference between politicians and businessmen. I felt like the case they present in that last post was especially apparent last night. Romney was still too polite and congenial when McCain was attacking him on "timetables." And this one highlights some differences between McCain and Romney. This was an interesting take:

But McCain may have won this debate before it ever started because the Giuliani endorsement today and the Schwarzenegger endorsement tomorrow appear to be trumping anything that happened tonight.

This is an encouraging take if you're a Romney guy. This is another breakdown of how delegates might get spread following Super Tuesday. And this last one is Hugh's call to conservative supporters of Huckabee. From the Hewitt post:

In fact, the conservative vote has been split in many directions, but now has to decide whether to coalesce around Romney and send the race deep into the spring or turn the party over to Senator McCain and run a 1976/1968 campaign of the center. Mike Huckabee wants GOP voters to ignore what is at work in his remaining in the race, but that's hardly likely. Next Tuesday's contests will be a measure of the strength of the GOP's conservative wing. If it remains strong, it will keep the Romney campaign competitive with wins across the country except in the northeast. If it shrugs its shoulders, the Reagan Coalition will have finished its run.

That is the only way I think Romney can pull out the nomination. Conservatives need to realize the direction the party will head if they hand over the nomination to McCain. The amount of attention, or lack thereof, alotted to Huckabee at the debate last night should have served as a huge indicator to the people about how seriously the country is taking his candidacy. A vote for Huckabee is essentially a vote for McCain. The conservative base cannot be divided, otherwise we are handing over the country to the left.