South Carolina CNN Debate

My personal takeaways from the Republican Primary Debate today:

• Newt can't stop talking with authority about anything, even when what he is saying is barely coherent.
• Romney could have handled this whole tax returns issue a lot better than he has, but even having had two days to practice a proper response to that issue he still ended up like a deer caught in the headlights today.
• Best moment of the debate was when the audience booed the bejesus out of John King (the moderator) when he tried to skip Paul's answer to the question of his position on abortion.  Paul had to remind him for the second time in the debate (the first was during the question about Obamacare) that he, as the only medical doctor, probably had a relevant view on the issue at hand.
• Santorum may have done well for himself with his strategy of non-apologetic social conservatism.
• Some of the candidates seem to think that the Federal Government is the answer to everything.  Surprisingly to me, Romney may just not be in that group.
• Ron Paul knew there would be a closing statement.  Couldn't he have prepared one in advance?