TJ Walker breaks down the 2012 South Carolina Republican debate, focusing on Newt Gingrich's response to questions about his ex-wife and media attacks. Santorum made the clearest case for voters, Romney stayed steady but stumbled on tax returns, and Gingrich won the crowd with his media criticism.
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So who won the Republican debate tonight for South Carolina? It's not really about who won or lost. It's who's going to get the headlines and who else but Newt Gingrich? How else to start off the debate than everything that's surrounding the news with this Nightline interview with his ex wife, John King, the CNN moderator, coming right out and asking him about the claims that she made about wanting an open marriage. And how does Newt answer it? Typical. No, but I will. And he then goes into an explanation again, going back to that old Newt topic of denigrating the media, saying that the media was to blame for a lot that's going on in politics. Really playing to his strengths, playing to the strengths of the crowd. Two standing ovations during that diatribe to start off the debate, going along with his one standing ovation from the debate earlier this week. So let's get to the nuts and bolts of the debate. I think if you looked at it point by point, who made the best points, who came across as the best conservative candidate? Surprisingly, I would say that actually Rick Santorum came out on top in terms of making the most points, making the most points for himself as the most viable candidate. Will he actually win? No, that's going to be between Rami and. And Newt Gingrich. Romney had a few missteps when it came to releasing his tax returns. Going into some convoluted statement about how his father was from Mexico and how he would release them all at one time. Great PR ploy by Newt Gingrich, by the way, releasing his returns during the actual debate. John King throwing into a commercial and saying that Speaker Gingrich has announced his tax returns. Obviously getting himself into, implanted into the story, differentiating himself from Romney. Overall, Romney was steady as she goes, as he always is. No major flubs. We did mention that one flub where he was going a little bit too long in his explanation about his tax returns. Newt Gingrich obviously hitting back, hitting back at Romney, hitting back at the media, but also having a good toe to toe with Rick Santorum. Santorum bringing up issues of whether he would be the best candidate to face President Obama. Gingrich really hit back strong at Santorum, point by point. One of the reasons why I give a slight nod to Santorum is at the very end when John King asks, why should voters vote for you? He was the only one of the four that differentiated himself by saying specific first person points as to why he would make the best candidate. Ron Paul went on about liberty, which is obviously something that's of interest to the voting population. New Gingrich and Romney both sort of talked around the issues brought in America, American ideals. But it was Santorum who really differentiated himself point by point, went through different things. Whether you agree with Santorum or not, whether you think that he could win or not, he was the one that really made the best point for why you should vote for him.
