Moderator Wolf Blitzer guided the questioning of the four remaining republican presidential candidates last night in what I would describe as a mostly useless debate created mostly to try and get candidates fighting amongst themselves.  For the most part he was more successful than other moderators in doing that.  I don’t think it was for the theatre of it as much as it was ideological on the part of Blitzer.  What I wanted to see was more of how each candidate would accomplish their stated goals they set for themselves should they be elected President of the United States.  Instead, most of the questions from Blitzer were about the attack ads front runners Gingrich and Romney threw at each other on the Floridian air waves.

To be fair, the debate was not a total loss because some very germane questions came from the audience.  For instance there was a Palestinian-American gentleman who asked what candidates would do for the Palestinian people.  The question was directed to Romney who answered the question superbly.  Romney didn’t pander to the gentleman in the audience, instead he told him that the reason peace was elusive was because Palestine was being lead by Hamas and other anti-Israel groups who refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and he said if he were President he would stand strongly with Israel.

There were other great questions from the audience, but Blitzer seemed most interested in getting Gingrich and Romney to argue with each other.  Now in past debates Gingrich has gotten home-runs by turning mean spirited questions back at the moderator, but not last night.  After much time being dedicated to the bickering between Romney and Gingrich, Rick Santorum spoke up and admonished Blitzer for wasting valuable time on non-important issues.  He didn’t get a standing ovation, but the applause was loud and long.  It didn’t matter much though because Blitzer was not fazed and continued the same line of questioning.

So in a nutshell, how’d they do?  Here’s my take… All the candidates did a terrific job.  Each had moments of brilliance and each had moments they wished they could take back.

PAUL: There was no focus on foreign policy so Doctor Paul did very well.  He even had a couple of great laugh lines that showed his quick wit and general ability to think on his feet.  It was remarked that he was 76 years old and Blitzer asked him if he was willing to release his mecial records.  Paul started out by kidding Blitzer he’d better be careful lest he be accused of age discrimination.  Paul said sure, he’d release his medical records.  He said they wouldn’t have much in them and then he challenged the rest of the group to race him in a bicycle marathon… No one dared to take him up on it.  It was a delightful moment for Paul.

SANTORUM:  Rick Santorum had his 94 year old mother in the audience and she seemed fit and feisty.  He was obviously as proud of her as she was of him.  Santorum had probably the best debate performance yet and he hammered Romney on “RomneyCare” and it’s “Top-Down” style mandating people buy insurance just because they are breathing.  Romney tried to use semantics to make it sound a little better, but Santorum drove his points home very effectively and lumped Gingrich into the mix as well leaving both the front runners stammering to recover.  Santorum showed that he is still a viable candidate and though it is not expected for him to beat either Romney or Gingrich in Florida, he will continue in the race.

GINGRICH:  Gingrich had set the bar high on his debate performances and although he got no standing ovations last night he did perform well.  Had he been any other candidate he would have been happy, but his numbers were falling going into the debate and he needed to hit it out of the park once again… He didn’t.  He did not have the opportunity to get the best of Blitzer as Santorum beat him to that punch, and his one-on-ones with Romney were not decisive wins.  He took as hard as he gave.  Coming out of South Carolina Gingrich’s poll numbers were great, but with Romney stepping up his negative ads against Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi threatening she had secret dirt she could use which would prevent Gringrich from ever becoming President, his poll numbers started falling.  By the time of the debate last night Gingrich’s poll numbers were below Romney’s, albeit still within the margin of error.  The problem for Gingrich is the timing and the fact that there is still a few days before the election.  Florida is not a proportional state, so if Romney wins Florida he will get all 55 delegates.

ROMNEY:  If I had to say someone won the debate last night it would be Romney.  Romney hired a debate coach from the now defunct Michele Bachmann campaign and it showed.  He was Presidential, forceful without being bullyish, concise and able to counter-punch when attacked.  It was his best debate performance by far.  The only one who really laid a glove on him was Santorum and everyone knows “RomneyCare” is Romney’s Achilles heel.

What Really disappointed me in the debate last night was the total lack of interest in asking questions or trying to get responses from any part of the President’s State of the Union speech the previous night.  Now THAT is an obvious bias on Blitzer and CNN’s part to protect Obama!