Great debate last night. Here are some of the sharpest, most buzzy moments from it.
1. Perry reassures seniors on Social Security.
He starts off by trying to clear charges that he's ready to dismantle the program.
"The people who are on Social Security today need to understand something -- slam-dunk, guaranteed that program is going to be in place for those."
2. Perry attacks Romney for "trying to scare seniors" on Social Security. Notice that at the minute he says "scare", the tea party audience roars its approval.
The movement is well-acquainted with the idea of scare tactics and well-aware of NY-26.
3. Best zinger.
After Perry and Romney fight over who wants to do what with Social Security, Newt Gingrich jumps in with the sharpest line of the night.
"I'm not particularly worried about Governor Perry and Governor Romney frightening the American people when President Obama scares them every single day."
This is hugely important for one reason: according to polls, the focus of the Republican party in 2012 isn't to nominate a particular candidate or philosophy. It's to beat Obama.
Perry and Romney were trying to scare the audience into voting one way or the other. But even though there were some boos, those were mainly scattered. The only thing uniting the audience wasn't a candidate but the prospect of beating Barack Obama. You'll never hear a tea party audience erupt with such singular emotion at anything else.
That's why I don't think it's terrifically important for the GOP to nominate a tea-party friendly candidate. Neither Rick Perry nor Michele Bachmann nor Sarah Palin can stir a tea party audience like Obama's mere name can. They might say they'll never vote for Mitt Romney, but Barack Obama can probably convince them to.
4. Rick Santorum's moment.
His best zinger from any debate, thus far.
BLITZER: When it comes to social security, are you with Governor Romney or Governor Perry?
SANTORUM: Well, the question is: who's with me?
5. The "Four Aces" moment.
This is Romney's trickiest sell -- that Perry doesn't deserve too much credit for Texas' success.
That's not because Perry does, because in fact, Romney's argument here is sound: Texas is blessed with an extraordinary favorable climate to business, most of which has little to do with Perry.
Staying with "four aces": Let's say you have the Phillies' four-ace rotation: does the Phillies offense really get credit if they win 1-0?
Rick Perry says "Yeah, I hit that home run." But Mitt Romney answers "Cliff Lee struck out the Yankees entire lineup and peed on Babe Ruth's grave." Romney is hoping you find the latter more compelling.
6. Perry prosecutes Obama.
This was Perry's best moment. Watch it. It's not eloquent. In fact, it'd be easy to find a more articulate way of prosecuting the case against Obama, but it'd be precious hard to find a more effective way.
Perry has a few of these moments each debate. If he can talk with this kind of force and clarity consistently, watch out.
7. HPV Time.
Who knew that a sexually-transmitted disease would play such a big role in a GOP primary.
In case you didn't know, in 2007, Perry mandated that 6th grade girls be vaccinated for HPV, which can lead to cervical cancer. It was hugely controversial, and Perry has since reversed himself.
But it's really tough territory for him because a) the mandate still angers social conservatives, whom he's courting heavily and b) it smacks many as an unlawful power grab and government intrusion into health care, which isn't compatible with the Perry message, at all.
My favorite part of Michele Bachmann's indictment: She calls the vaccine a "government injection", as if it were some covert project wherein girls were lured by federal agents into rooms where they were strapped down (while screaming) and injected with frightening new fluids that the military was testing for the next millennium's war.
Here's Perry defending himself. More accurately, defending himself against Bachmann's charge that he only issued the government mandate to help out his chief-of-staff.
Perry's defense was okay, but Bachmann just killed him on the comeback.
Oh, and here's Santorum, getting in on Gardasil, too.
8. Remainders.
Jon Huntsman is getting beaten up pretty badly today after his poor performance, and I won't add to it, except to show two clips of his worst one-liners at the debate.
The conventional and (in this case, correct) wisdom is that, from an electoral perspective, Romney won. He speaks more articulately about everything than Perry, although less compellingly. It's an interesting contrast -- articulate vs. compelling. Nevertheless, Romney seems to be succeeding in his campaign's platform: I'm the most electable.
