Marathon Pundit: Giuliani (tier one) and Hunter (tier two) tonight's GOP winners

I missed the first Republican presidential debate and heard mostly bad reaction regarding MSNBC's coverage, so I have to say I'm very impressed by the way Fox News Channel's Brit Hume and Wendell Goler's moderated this evening's debate in South Carolina.

First of all, in a ten candidate field divided in two tiers--popular and less popular--that means there were two contests tonight--The top (for now) contenders and the rest.

The winner in the first category was Rudy Giuliani in my opinion. His answers were concise, direct, and Rudy the Rock had the best moment when he asked Rep. Ron Paul to retract his most idiotic comment tonight, in which the the Texan pretty much said we invited 9/11 because of our policies against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Romney, the consensus winner of the first GOP debate did well too. He didn't hit a home run, but he landed a double or a triple--he'll continue to build support for his campaign

McCain. It was a bad night for him. Eight years ago he came across as too hot-headed to be president. Tonight, he came across as a tired old man. Am I mean? Perhaps. But I don't think I'll be the only blogger expressing that opinion. I didn't agree with his answer on torture, but I would have respected him more if he expressed some greater passion on the subject. And of all the candidates, only McCain can speak with credibility on what it's like to be tortured.

And now to the bottom tier:

Gov. Mike Huckabee, someone I've been tough on in this space, easily got in the best line of the night, when the Arkansan said that "Congress was spending money like John Edwards in a beauty shop." An ironic comment that got a lot of applause--yes, it was a Republican audience, but Edwards was born in South Carolina and lives in neighboring North Carolina.

But my tier-two winner is Rep. Duncan Hunter. The San Diego congressman gave solid, believable answers to every question answered. His reply on the "torture question" was perfect.

With two exceptions, the rest of the rest didn't really do anything to help or hurt their campaign.

But that brings up former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. The guy just doesn't have it. He's also a former Health and Human Service Secretary, and on the one question he should've soared on, stem cell research, he kept bringing up the University of Wisconsin. He came across as a Midwestern governor trying to attract a factory to his his state rather than a man running for president.

As bad as Thompson was, the previously mentioned Ron Paul was so bad, I almost expected a Monty Python 16 ton weight to land on him. Paul is a medical doctor, and I have to wonder if he's helping himself to his meds. His 9/11 comment was only the kookiest of a bunch of kooky statements made by Dr. Paul tonight.

Paul had other problems as well. As a second-tier denizen, it's expected that he push the time limit for his answers--these guys don't have ad budgets. Paul was "dinged" the most, six times by my count, Rep. Tom Tancredo was second with four dingings.

A few months ago, Pat at Brainster had a post headlined Ron Paul, Retard. I thought that was cruel of him, but not anymore.

I noted earlier today that Ron Paul "mysteriously" seems to do well in online polls. So does Tommy Thompson. My message tonight to the two of you is drop out now. Unfortunately, Ron Paul will probably hang around forever, just as his fringe soul mate, Dennis Kucinich, did in the Democratic primaries in 2004.

Fellas, if all you can do is produce "bots" or a dedicated few to spam polls to build support, then you need to rethink your career options.

Technorati tags: