Five highlights from the GOP debate in New Hampshire
If you missed the GOP presidential debate last night about the economy (hosted by the Washington Post and Bloomberg News), here are five key points from DCDecpder's liveblog coverage with .
1. By and large, the (, too!). The candidates were seated around a large wooden table, giving the entire thing a more intimate feel.
The moderators did a great job of speeding the questions along and while Ron Paul and Rick Santorum were hardly well served, the entire evening did feel serious and engaged where some of the other debates felt shlocky and crusted over with social media doodads.
2. Most memorable quote of the evening: Herman Cain Or was it Jon Huntsman saying the 鈥�999 plan鈥� ? Or was it Jon Huntsman鈥檚 daughters laying over China?
3. There was a ton of talk about the Federal Reserve. Newt Gingrich kicked it all off with a long diatribe about how Ben Bernanke, former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd and Democratic Congressman Barney Frank (Mass.) .
Herman Cain also ripped Bernanke then later said he admired Alan Greenspan, which drew immediate rebuke from Ron Paul () and likely cost Cain with some of the professional, Wall St. Republican set.
4. Everybody is going bananas for 鈥�999.鈥� Herman Cain鈥檚 tax plan calling for a 9% federal income tax, a 9% sales tax and a 9% corporate income tax was at the center of the debate. There鈥檚 are a ton of moving parts here, but if you only know one thing about it from last night let it be everybody is going to be at 999 in the weeks ahead.
The power of Cain鈥檚 plan is its simplicity, as the . But if the devil is in the details, to paraphrase , the next few weeks will be about the details. (CSMonitor.com , by the way.)
5. In Decoder鈥檚 view, Romney, Cain and to a lesser extent Santorum all comported themselves well and gained from the debate while Perry, who many thought needed to distinguish himself, looked . the primary process has gotten to the point 鈥渨here the winners and losers are the ones who aren鈥檛 necessarily flashy, but well-polished and well-studied. Romney made it look easy; he鈥檚 well-polished and well-studied.鈥�
Find all of DC Decoder鈥檚 liveblog coverage and Shortformblog鈥檚 .
The best from around the web:
, POLITICO. This story has the , reproduced below for your entertainment.
鈥淚 just try to get up every day and do my job, and debates are not my strong suit,鈥� the Texas governor told reporters following a post-debate party at a Dartmouth fraternity house.鈥�
, by Dan Balz, a highly-respected political writer for the Washington Post.
, by Bloomberg.
by The Weekly Standard. Apparently, Perry鈥檚 best performance of the night was well off camera.
You can find the liveblog of the debate from Andrew Sullivan, of Newsweek/Daily Beast (and formerly of the Atlantic), .
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