UPDATE: It’s a long read. I’ve tried to capture the gist of everyone’s responses and my immediate impression. I type quickly. 80 words a minute or more. But these politicians talk far more quickly than that, so I’ve certainly missed a lot. Hope you enjoy.

Mitt is going to make sure that you keep your job. Every job. Guess he’s trying to overcome that “guy who lays you off” thing.

McCain: I’ll use that veto pen. No porkbarrel earmarks. He’s not Miss Congeniality. He’s right. I’ve met John McCain. He looks nothing like Sandra Bullock.

Huckabee: “I commend the President” Is he trying to raise his bona fides with Republicans now that he’s in a hard core Republican state? Guess he’s punting on Michigan and looking to SC. Romney, on the other hand took less that 30 seconds to mention Michigan. He’s in South Carolina. Both Huck and Mitt know where they have to win.

Rudy: Taxes, spending, regulation. Something like that.

McCain: Tax cuts stimulate the economy. Chris Wallace didn’t ask him directly about the Bush tax cuts that he opposed.

Paul: The Federal Reserve caused the bad economy. Actually, Dr. Wacknut, the economy is pretty damn good. You’re old enough to remember far worse than we’ve seen recently. Far worse. And what’s with Austrian economic theory? Did I hear that right? (UPDATE: I did hear that right. John Podhoretz has the best take on that comment: “Ron Paul claims to be a follower of the libertarian economics of Ludwig von Mises, but perhaps, given what we’ve been learning about him, he should stay away in the future from saying he believes in anything ‘Austrian.’” )

Fred: Rudy stole my plan. “Unemployment is UP to 5% which used to be considered full employment.” Yep. Sure was when I was in school and was lucky to find summer jobs at $2.25 an hour.

Carl Cameron: You hate Reagan. Why?

Huckabee. Wow. Never heard him stutter step on an answer before. Apparently Reagan coalition consisted of Pro-lifers and pro-gun. Funny, I seem to remember a few others. He’s apparently forgotten who they were. Not surprising.

McCain: We’ve gotten away from Reagan’s practices. We came to Washington to change it and Washington changed us. Great answers until he put global warming in there. Huh? What advisor told him to slip that in?

Romney: The Massachusetts Right to life coalition gave him an award. Both members.

Romney: Better answer on Reagan and optimism. He’s the only guy who has yet spoken about Reagan and doesn’t sound “me too”. Reagan knew how America works, not how Washington works. Great answer.

Fred: Taking it to Huck. Ed Rollins spoke for the Huckabee campaign. Arrogant and liberal foreign policy. Liberal fiscal policy. Taxpayer funded programs and the NEA endorsement. He’s not the model of Reagan, he’s the model of the Democratic Party. Huge applause line. First one of the night.

Huck: He cut government. Reagan raised taxes too. First ding of the night. The people of my state must have liked it because the kept reelecting me. Somebody needs to bring up that his state kept reelecting some other guy too.

Rudy: I worked for Ronald Reagan. I’m a conservative. Peace through strength. Cold war and war on terror are similar. Lower taxes, restraining spending. Aside. Put Huck and his social issues with Rudy on fiscal and military and you have the perfect candidate.

Carl Cameron: Would you like to take this opportunity to have a Sister Souljah moment?

Paul. No. I like my nutjob fiends and they like me. (Ha. I just reread that. “Fiends” I meant to say “friends”. In this case, same thing.)

Huck was just asked a recent foreign policy question. He didn’t seem to flub it. Good red meat answer about “facing the gates of hell”. Unlike the NIE question, this time it looks like he actually knew what the question was about.

Fred. Got some applause line. I didnt’ hear it. Sorry. Got a phone call. The second part of his answer was about Iranian specifics. Knows the issue.

Rudy. He knows the issue too and the broader context. Again, if we could put pro-life Huck with pro-law and order pro-military Rudy together, he’d be a clear winner. His name would be Fred.

McCain. Great answer about not second guessing ship’s captains who made the calls they did at the time they did because we weren’t there. I’m a military man so that non-micro-managing answer resonates with me. Does it resonate elsewhere?

Paul: He’s going for the liberal democratic vote. Big time. If Hillary is the nominee Ron Paul will kill Democrats chances when he runs as a third party candidate.

Brit Hume: Every one of these other candidates applauded our decision to react passively. What are you responding to? BRIT HUME FOR PRESIDENT!

Romney: Nice scripted line about Ahmadenijad press releases. But obviously scripted.

McCain: He’s running against Democrats. Bringing up Hillary’s slam on Gen Petraeus. Good answer. He’s taking on the Dems. They’re the target. On this issue especially. And he’s taking on Time Magazine for naming Putin the man of the year instead of Petraeus. Scripted, I’m sure. But effective.

Rudy: Confirms Israel’s right to exist. Can’t wait to hear Ron Paul’s response to that one.

Wendel Goller: Should the president even be in the Middle East today?

Paul: Huh? I’m not even sure he just uttered a coherent phrase, much less a sentence or paragraph. As your homework assignment please diagram what he just said. I’m not even sure that he’s taken a breath in the last 90 seconds.

Paul: Look out that war is not over. Ummm . . . you’re right. So why do are you retreating?

Goller: Will you still back Musharraf? Two-thirds of his country is against him.

Fred: Funny line. “Oh my goodness, go against a poll? How could anyone do that?” And then a slam about Iraq being good news since you don’t read about it in the NYT. Now he’s getting in to details about Pakistan, who, what, and where. He’s sharp humorous and substantive. He and McCain are winning this debate at the half way mark.

Romney: What the heck is three-dimensional chess? Who wrote that response? Schools. We need more schools in Pakistan. Yeah, that’s the ticket. We need to do for Pakistani education what we’ve done for education in America.

Huck: We need to communicate our displeasure to Musharraf. In the strongest way. Adds that we will come to the defense of Israel. He’s very strong about that.

Paul: Treat Israel like adults. Whatever that means.

Rudy: Takes Paul to the woodshed for calling Israel our stepchild. They are our allies. Will work with Musharraf to get Bin Laden.

Fred: Added 20 seconds about military cooperation with Pakistan, but the issue had already passed him by. It had moved on to Israel. Too little too late for Fred.

Chris Wallace: Why are you pushing change?

Mitt: Washington is broken and can’t keep promises. Health care, tax burden, illegal immigration, earmarks, nothing has happened. If you send the same people back to Washington just to sit in different chairs you won’t get change. Strong answer. Washington: similar*, smaller, and smarter.
*Upon rereading this after the debate, I don’t even know what word I was trying to type. Sorry.

McCain: I’m not part of the problem. I’ve been a part of the most important change: what we’ve done in Iraq. He’s the sherrif. Think he’s mentioned that twice now. Attacks Jack Abramoff and his lobbyist cronies. Bet everyone checks his donation record now to make sure that he doesn’t have any Abramoff ties.

Chris Wallace: You raised taxe and increased the size of government; are you a big government Republican?

Huck: He raised “hope” and “expectations” but he didn’t answer the question about whether or not he’s a big government Republican.

Fred: Attacks Huck on the tax pledge. Not sure it went over. Touts his own record. Stale. This was a question he could have answered about how when he was in the Senate from 94 to 2002 they reduced budgets reformed welfare and eliminated the deficit, and since he left all that changed. He’s rambling. Great opportunity. Lame answer.

Huckabee said something. Not sure what it was, but it was less rambling than whatever Fred just said.

Rudy: Change. Democrats want to pull the change out of your pocket. It could have been a great line. I can imagine Reagan pulling it off. Didn’t work for Rudy

McCain: I’ve led before. Not for profit but for patriotism. I respect everyone on this stage. I just believe that I am more qualified. If it was a race, McCain just pulled ahead.

Carl Cameron: Do you still think women should submit?

Huck: Janet Huckabee can kick my butt. His pastoral answer following that was pretty good.

Carl Cameron: Congressman Paul, A question about viability: do you have any?

Paul: He said something. It was long and rambling. Essentially he said: NO.

Wendell Goler: Your plan on immigration failed. What now?

McCain: It failed because the American people had no trust or faith in us. Good so far. But then he said Americans need to restore their confidence in Congress. No. Congress must demonstrate that it deserves America’s confidence.

Goler: What’s your plan to remove 12 million illegals?

Romney: If you’re here illegally you have to go home and then get in line.

Fred: High fences wide gate and we get to decide when to open and close it. Cut discretionary funding to sanctuary cities. Attrition.

Paul: Enforce the law. No amnesty. Free medical care and education, and no wonder more will come. You can’t solve this problem if you don’t solve welfarism. Actually pretty good answer until he brought up Iraq. My wife says that he’s like the crazy uncle that you see once a year at Thanksgiving and you smile a lot when he’s talking and then quickly excuse yourself to get another sandwich.

Huck: Huh?

Goller: You ran a sanctuary city, didn’t you?

Rudy: Children of illegal immigrants. I allowed them to go to school instead of them being on the streets. He’s right. If the kids are here they have to go to school. Beats having them loitering. Ended with an apparent appeal to increase the size of the border patrol.

Post Game Show:

Frank Luntz’s panel LOVED Fred! Humorous, articulate, engaging, on-point, I can trust him as a candidate. Also his flippancy turned some people off. Others said he was a leader, delighted.

Ron Paul was the loser. Overwhelmingly. But that’s no surprise. I wish that Luntz hadn’t let the group off the hook and instead which “real” candidate was the loser.

UPDATE:

Many more reactions at Glenn’s place. And at the Corner. Jim Geraghty and Ann Althouse too. Also Daniel Casse and John Podhoretz.

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