Hutsman Wins Debate, But Talk Is On Perry

In the GOP debate wednesday evening Perry came out with both arms swinging, tackling Social Security, job creation, and climate change.  Personally, Jon Huntsman did the best in the debate, but the media has deemed him all but eliminated and sadly I fear he will soon be leaving the competition.
So all the attention seems focused on two individuals - Perry and Romney.  Admittedly the exchange between the two front-runners at the beginning of the debate over who created the best job climate as governor of their respective states made me happy.  Here I thought the two might make fools of themselves and hurt their image, but they brought it back down and by the end seems amicable enough.
Perry took a hard line on a couple of issues, though.  He defended his claims in his book "Fed Up" that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, going so far as to label it a lie to the youth of America.  The Texas governor also held firm in his doubt of climate change and this is an issue that will likely be misrepresented by his competition, so let me defend his claim for a second.
Perry is claiming the science on climate change is still unclear to the point that man is the cause for it.  In his words, he made this distinction.  Sadly, I think people will ignore or miss this distinction, so his campaign should brace for an onslaught from the Romney camp.
Perry did make concessions on his actions against HPV when attacked by Ron Paul, saying if he were to do it again, he would not use executive orders to accomplish his goal.  He ended his statement with a promise that he will choose to fight cancer.  So I can only conclude that he truly doesn't fear using executive orders and simply wanted to escape the situation in which he found himself.
Perry also showed his apparent lack of aptitude concerning the English language, stumbling over lines, forgetting the word "nominee" when referring to a previous comment Rick Santorum made, and generally using fragmented sentences and non-sequitors.  Kind of reminds me of another governor from Texas...
On to Romney then!  I think Romney did a decent job in the debate.  He continues to show his savvy for the type of political rhetoric necessary to navigate a debate and was able to show himself to be more conservative than his actions are, asserting the need for a fence between the U.S. and Mexico and blasting Obamacare.  He tactfully separated himself from Perry on issues of Social Security and climate change.
If I was forced to pick a loser for the debate, it would be Michelle Bachmann.  She did not excite the crowd at all, made few points of interest, and remained generally inactive during the debate.  I can resect her difficult position, because as a woman if she asserts herself too much she can come across as crazy, but in this debate she almost seemed resigned.
My new favorite person, Newt Gingrich, fired off more complaints about the media much as he did in the previous debate.  Instead of answering probably one of the deepest questions in the debate concerning the use of individual mandates in a healthcare plan, Gingrich accused the mediator of separating the candidates in an attempt to weaken their position so Obama could win the election.  United we stand, Newt!  I think he is making a ploy to be in the victor's Cabinet, so well played good sir.  If nothing else, your firebrand spirit is entertaining.
Ron Paul did a relatively poor job in the debate as well, which is sad because I do support the man.  He seemed especially scatterbrained tonight as he was covering four to five subject matters, jabbing at candidates along the way but never fully explaining himself.  This is just another instance that shows he is weakest in these debates.  His philosophy is much more complex than what one minute will allow in explanation.  My sincere hope is people will go to his website to get a good idea what his beliefs are.
Herman Cain was probably my second best candidate this evening.  He was able to "stop the rhetoric and come up with actions" that would bring results.  To his credit, he seems to have general plans for many of the top issues - though I am confused on his 9-9-9 plan.  His biggest weakness continues to be on foreign affairs, which is a large portion of the electoral debate.   I can see myself liking the guy, but he is far from a perfect candidate.
And finally Rick Santorum.  We cannot forget Rick Santorum - referring to himself in the third person in every debate.  The guy is all but done for.  Tonight he didn't have that much to say.  He joined in with the attacks on Perry and tried to bash the views of Paul - again.  If I were to guess the next person to leave the race it would be this guy.  I don't think I'll miss him.
All in all it was a good debate.  Perry is officially in the race and I am interested to see how the polls shake up from this.  My guess is Romney will receive a slight boost and Bachmann will continue to sink, but otherwise there will be little will change.
Feel free to continue the debate below - I will add my own two cents - and if you want to keep up with my blog follow me by clicking on the "Follow" button below the toolbar.