Hits and Misses in Ames

I watched the show last night and will confess to being surprised. Some that I thought might be viable proved incredibly inept. Some that I thought dead-on-arrival proved remarkably resilient. And one that I had thought certifiably insane reinforced my opinion.

Despite Bret Baier's plea at the start to set-aside the pre-scripted sound-bites and list of talking points several of the candidates couldn't cut loose from the rehearsal. In the process they appeared lame, unresponsive and pandering. The ones who succeeded in answering direct questions with direct answers looked presidential and intelligent--which may be something aggressively demanded by next year's voters.

The leader of recovery and arguably the most intelligent, thoughtful and impressive performance of the night came from the gentleman that everyone has already written off. Newt Gingrich was powerful and particularly when he bitch-slapped Chris Wallace, he looked far from comatose. Will the electorate notice? That's hard to say. The folks in Iowa are supposed to be politically astute but the straw poll on Saturday isn't about that so much as organization, bus convoys of supporters and paid-off sycophants who will write your name on the ballot in exchange for two hot-dogs and a glass of cheap Chardonnay.

The polling leader going into the debate looked pathetic. Michelle Bachmann said nothing substantive and repeated uber-conservative cliches without end. She really didn't enunciate any policy positions, cite any achievement specifics or even avoid a Minnesota internecine spat with Tim Pawlenty which was demeaning to both of them.

Pawlenty proved himself ready for a one-way ticket back to St. Paul. He was, if possible, worse than Bachmann. His rote line was about being a governor and succeeding in leaving his state in paralysis. He somehow believed that his gubernatorial performance was going to outshine Romney's but in the process may have forgotten the silent elephant in the room, three-term successful Gov. Rick Perry. His exchange with Bachmann got no votes for either of them.

The guy on a roll throughout the day was Mitt Romney. From the early morning out-takes of his dust-up with a paid heckler at a morning rally, he blanketed the news shows until he finished big in the debate. He had clear answers. He covered his solutions. He dodged the moderator's bullets and he looked competent and coherent. I've not been a Romney fan, but I could definitely see him taking home the trophy next year. That wouldn't be a bad outcome for me.

Truly pathetic in performance was Jon Huntsman. He looked tired and washed out, with a deer-in-the-headlights wide-eyed stare to accompany bland pronouncements of absolutely no substance. There was simply no "there" there.

Much improved, but probably not going to last in the race, was Rick Santorum. He displayed a good sense of humor as he battled for time from an obviously odd-man-out position in the pecking order. He spoke well, rebutted several times with impact, and had appeal. It will be too little and already too late, but he did well.

Herman Cain was strong as well. He took opportunities to clarify some earlier controversial statements that have adversely impacted his campaign. He was well prepared and he had policy positions which he could explain in brief that might be difficult to implement but they were understandable to the crowd. He could place well on Saturday but is clearly a no-pun-intended dark horse in a white-bread state like Iowa.

The nut job-du-jour was Ron Paul. I had begun to drift back to a point where I considered him reasonably competent after my initial astonishment at his positions four years ago when he ran. Last night he disproved any notions I might have harbored regarding his lucidity. He rambled and meandered through answers that seemed both philosophical and obtuse. His ultra-Libertarian views are far out of the mainstream of America and maybe even far from the odd-ball rivulets of American politics as well.

On the way home: Pawlenty, Santorum, Paul, Huntsman and hopefully Bachmann.
On their way to success: Romney, Gingrich and maybe Cain.
Serious contender: Perry.