Mitt Romney Won The 2012 GOP New Hampshire Debate

For those of you who missed tonight's debate, you didn't miss much. In fact, it was a good thing you didn't watch the debates tonight since Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, the moderators for the debate, were horrible. Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney both went after the moderators on two separate occasions. 

George Stephanopoulos got ripped by Romney when he asked about whether or not he supports states banning contraception.Watch the clip below: 

George's question is ridiculous for so many reasons. As Mitt Romney pointed out, no state is currently proposing to ban contraception and its not even an issue in this election. It may have been an issue in the 1960s when the United States Supreme Court made its landmark decision upholding individuals having a right to contraceptives in Griswold v. Connecticut but its not an issue in this election. Liberals like George Stephanopoulos thinks its an issue since a few states wanted to pass laws stating that life begins at conception but these laws were aimed at abortion not contraceptives. The audience rightly applauded Mitt Romney for stating how ridiculous the question was and booing George Stephanopoulos for asking the question. 

Newt Gingrich also went after the moderators on the issue of gay marriage explaining that the media ignores the bigotry towards religion when it comes to issues of marriage, adoption and abortion: 

I just want to raise -- since we’ve spent this much time on these issues -- I just want to raise a point about the news media bias. You don’t hear the opposite question asked. Should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won’t accept gay couples, which is exactly what the state has done? Should the Catholic Church be driven out of providing charitable services in the District of Columbia because it won’t give in to secular bigotry? Should the Catholic Church find itself discriminated against by the Obama administration on key delivery of services because of the bias and the bigotry of the administration?

The bigotry question goes both ways. And there’s a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other side. And none of it gets covered by the news media.

The audience loved it. I loved it. He really stood up for all religions who are coerced by our government to provide services it opposes because it contradicts their deeply held religious views. 

You're all probably wondering who I think won tonight's debate. I'll give you the break down:

1. Mitt Romney won the debate hands down. Every news outlet including the post-debate analysis on ABC stated that he won. The reason why he won tonights debate was that most of the candidates didn't attack Romney and when they did, Mitt Romney swatted the attacks away. Mitt Romney began the debates by going after Obama on his failure to create jobs in America. Mitt Romney also gave an exceptional speech about American exceptionalism that sounded very much like the kind of debate speech Ronald Reagan would have given. He also did well in attacking Jon Huntsman over China with regard to trade imbalances, currency manipulation and corporate espionage. 

2. Rick Santorum did a good job tonight but he's in very distant second place. At one point, he tried to attack Romney for using the term "middle class" and called it class warfare rhetoric only to immediately attack wall street after making that comment. Moreover, that attack just came off as desperate and odd to many conservatives in the audience and at home. There were some moments when Rick Santorum did well tonight especially when he talked about how poorly Roe v. Wade was decided and his position on Iran and Afghanistan.  

3. I think tonight was Newt Gingrich's best debate performance. However, it wasn't enough to help him regain old position as a frontrunner in the campaign. The only highlight for me was his defense of traditional marriage and his response about whether or not we should stay in Afghanistan. The worst part for him is when he cited the New York times in his attack on Mitt Romney which is not the newspaper to cite if you're trying to impress a conservative audience. He was also clearly upset with Ron Paul for attacking him on Newt's deferments from the military during the Vietnam war. 

4. This debate was probably Rick Perry's best debate. The best moment for him was when he boldly stated that we should send our troops back into Iraq. I agree with that statement 100%. Rick Perry did a decent job in debating other issues. However, the biggest problem for Rick Perry a lot of people forgot that he was even at the debates until he spoke. That's bad news since Michelle Bachmann had the same problem and eventually dropped out of the race.  

5. Ron Paul was himself as usual. He got asked about his racist newsletters and he dodged the question by saying that Martin Luther King was his hero. However, its worth pointing out that in his own newsletter, they called MLK a philanderer who beat up his paramours and accuses him of seducing underage girls and boys. I also wish to remind people Ron Paul never issued a retraction for any of the racist articles that were published in his names. Yet a few weeks ago, he admitted that he did write in his newsletter but claims that he only wrote about economic issues in his newsletter. Another bad moment for Ron Paul is when he refused to state whether or not he would run a third party candidate in this election. As usual, Ron Paul thinks Iran is not a threat to the security of America or the world community. Ron Paul's only good moment is when he chastised Rick Santorum for interrupting him and going after Newt Gingrich on the issue of his deferments since he ruffled Gingrich's feathers pretty good.  

6. Jon Huntsman has never done well in any debates and I think tonight was his worst performance if you can believe that. Ever position he took was a liberal one whether it was same sex marriage, war or China which won't help him get any votes for Tuesday's New Hampshire Primary election.

Mitt Romney clearly won tonight's debate. Even though Mitt Romney is ahead in New Hampshire by a huge lead, tonight's debate will help him maintain his lead in that state. It will also help him maintain his huge lead in South Carolina. If Mitt Romney keeps up this momentum and wins New Hampshire and South Carolina, he'll wrap up the 2012 nomination early.