GOP 'Debate' a Love Fest

By Rick Moran

I was wracking my brain trying to think of another 90 minute show in the history of television that was as boring and devoid of substantative content as the GOP debate in Florida last night.

Michelle Malkin's grade? ZZZZZZZ.

Sorry - couldn't think of one, Neither could NRO's Michael Graham:

One of my GOP candidates had an expression: "WOT." Waste of time.

Did this debate accomplish anything, other than to remind us that Tim Russert is the most overrated journalist in television? I'm trying to imagine what Florida voter watched that and went—"OK, now I'm ready to vote!"

The conventional wisdom is that Romney owns the economy as an issue. But Rudy has a real plan, and a significantly different approach, that he and Romney could have debated. Someone could have pointed out that, if McCain had gotten his way, we probably would have had a real recession in the first part of this decade. How about Gov. Huckabee's $500 million net tax increase?

Graham wonders where he can go "to get my 90 minutes back" which pretty much sums up what most thought of the evening. As far as analysis, there's not much to say. Romney did well enough - especially the last third of the debate - to be a consensus winner. McCain didn't hurt himself any. Huckabee was off his game slightly, a couple of his jokes cratering the stage.

And even though he didn't make any glaring errors, Rudy Giuliani ended up the loser. He has staked all on Florida and recent polls show him in third place and falling further behind. The fact that he barely laid a glove on either of his rivals shows an inordinate amount of caution for a man facing political oblivion.

The race is a dead heat at present between McCain and Romney. If it comes down to organization and money, Romney has it all over McCain. That, plus the fact that Florida is a "closed" primary where only registered Republicans can vote would seem to give the edge to Romney at this point.