Mitt Romney didn't do very well. He made a major mistake offering a $10,000 bet to Rick Perry. It trivialized what is a large amount of money to most families and highlighted that Romney lives a very different life than most Americans. He's in a real danger.
Romney didn't just give President Obama grist for a campaign ad—he'd also lose the bet. Romney did, at least until recently, believe that his Massachusetts health care plan offered a model for the rest of the country.
This is not the dumbest thing Mitt Romney's ever said. It's not even the most outrageous thing he said at the debate tonight. But it could be the most damaging 35 seconds of his entire political career. Americans don't mind if their presidential candidates are filthy rich, but they sure don't like to be reminded that their presidential candidates are filthy rich. Romney's gonna have to have a whole lot of great days between now and January 3rd to make people forget about this.
This exchange over Israel is really the key exchange. From the point of view of the intended audience, I think both of them had good points. It pointed to a lot of Newt's problems, but in a way that I'm not sure will damage him in a GOP primary audience. But Mitt got a chance — which he hadn't remotely up till now — to make his basic point which is that Newt's a "bombthrower", a person who is just not temperamentally suited to be president — something that is unquestionably true.
Josh scores the debate as a win for Gingrich overall. Richard Adams focuses on the same moment:
"I'm not a bomb-thrower, rhetorically or literally," says Romney. Gingrich smiles like someone who has been offered a large plate of shit to eat. That was Romney's best play: subtle but underlined his differences with Gingrich: that he's got a big mouth who says dumb things and then claims he's just got the big ideas.
Tim Carney tackles Gingrich's claim that he worked in the private sector:
Gingrich was paid to help drug companies win new subsidies through Medicare. Gingrich was paid to protect and expand ethanol subsidies. Gingrich was paid to help protect Freddie Mac, which, thanks in part to that protected, blew up and pocketed millions in taxpayer bailouts. In all of these cases, Gingrich was profiting, at taxpayer expense, by increasing the size of government.
Gingrich showed again that he's a formidable debater no one should want within 100 yards of the nuclear football. Mitt Romney didn't look great when Diane Sawyer baited him into tussling with Newt, but mostly he stuck with sticking to the economy and sticking it to the president, and he had the second-best hair. Who won? I dunno. Barack Obama?
Best Performance: Romney for independent voters, Gingrich for Republican conservatives who are Tea Party members or sympathizers or talk show groupies. Gingrich was not cut down by the debate. His front runner status REMAINS. Romney didn’t advance himself.
Romney had the most to lose tonight, and he certainly did.
The Dish 