CNN/Tea Party Express debate after-set; Mitt's it

Another GOP debate has passed. And it was a good one, the format for tonight's CNN/Tea Party Express Republican presidential debate was the best of this year's batch so far. I liked that the candidates questioned each other.

The winner? Mitt Romney. His debate experience showed and he was very effective in confronting Rick Perry on his "Ponzi scheme" comments about Social Security. Perry was tentative at times, particularly when explaining his executive order requiring the HPV vaccine as one of the required inoculations for Texas schoolgirls.

The loser? Ron Paul. His "Blame America" beliefs he emitted tonight were rightly booed. Had the audience known Paul would have been so forceful in peddling his venom, they would have brought rotten tomatoes and thrown them at the Texas congressman.

I liked Gingrich, again, but he seemed to have gotten the least amount of airtime. Herman Cain improved over what I believed was a dismal performance at last week's Reagan Library debate by juxtaposing his private industry experience against the seven politicians he was facing. The Tea Party Express backdrop gave Michele Bachmann a home field advantage. She shined, but Bachmann needed to hit a home run, but I suspect she only got a double. Santorum continues to defy expectations--but as with Bachmann, I feel that Perry has grabbed a Texas share of the family-values bloc of voters.

Jon Huntsman referred to his jobs program, which the Wall Street Journal, loves. They should, it's a masterwork. But I'm not sure why the former Utah governor had to go as far to say to Rick Perry, "You can't secure the border is a treasonous statement." It seemed like a desperate attempt to earn a cable news sound bite, probably something fed to him by an aide. Be yourself, Jon. Remember what happened to Tim Pawlenty.

Here are my favorite lines of each candidate. I've even included a Ron Paul quote.

Perry: "People are tired of spending money on programs we don't want."

Romney: "We are an energy rich nation. We are living like an energy poor nation."

Paul: "Cut the Department of Education, the Department of Energy."

Bachmann: "I was one of the only people in the country that said 'Do not raise the debt ceiling.' Repeal Dodd-Frank, repeal ObamaCare, it's really not that hard to try, you just have to have the backbone to do it."

Santorum: "It was the greatest gift to my father to come to this country and to learn English. We are a melting pot, not a salad bowl."

Huntsman: "We have a cancer that it is eating away at this country that is called debt."

Gingrich: [In regards to tax breaks.] "I thought for a minute you were going to refer to General Electric, which has paid no taxes....Does [Obama] realize that every green energy credit is a loophole?"

Cain: "Repeal ObamaCare in its entirety. Pass loser-pay [lawsuit]laws. Restructure Medicare."

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