Written By : John Hawkins

Summary: It was a different format, which I liked, but the debate was kind of slow overall.

6) Ron Paul (Loser): Sounded horrendous, as always, on foreign policy and perhaps more surprisingly, couldn’t even come across well on illegal immigration, where he probably has the best record of anyone on the stage. There wasn’t a single point during the whole night where I’d genuinely say he gave a good answer.

5) John McCain: Lots of unpresidential squabbling with Romney, he sounded horrible on illegal immigration, and came across as distinctly unconservative on a variety of issues. Once he got off of foreign policy, he was pretty awful.

4) Rudy Giuliani: He sounded terrible on illegal immigration and more than a little canned as per usual, but came across well on foreign policy. Not as charismatic as I’ve thought in the past.

3) Mitt Romney: Got into a lot of unpresidential squabbling with McCain, was hammered by, with great effect on his flip-flopping, which he ineffectively responded to by calling them personal attacks. He did sound pretty good in stretches though on issues like illegal immigration and health care.

2) Mike Huckabee: Sounded weak on foreign policy, seemed pleased when he wasn’t beaten up, but generally came across well once they got on domestic policy. Didn’t show as much of the sparkling personality as he has in other debates, but he wasn’t bad.

1) Fred Thompson (Winner): Very sober, very conservative, but slightly sleepy. That was good enough for a victory in a low energy debate without a lot of exciting quips.

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