Herman Cain seems content to push his ideas as a businessman, and not go after his opponents. He gets a lot of applause for his emphasis on business, and his hardscrabble background. I don’t seem him gaining enough traction, however. His 9-9-9 plan sounds nice, and fits in with the “If 10% is good enough for God…” crowd, but I have yet to see anything that backs up his assertions that it would provide a way out of the hole that we’ve dug ourselves.
As for Rick Santorum, he took the swings he could, but it seemed like he was only able to pile on when another candidate had made a point. Most notably, he joined up with Michele Bachmann to attack Rick Perry’s HPV vaccine mandate. He also talked quite a bit about his willingness to speak the truth, but didn’t seem to really get the crowd behind his record of winning elections in Democratic-leaning areas.
That leaves Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, at this point the leaders and two most likely candidates to win the GOP nomination. Perry took more shots during the debate than he has in the past, with a number of candidates attacking him for his HPV vaccine decision, and his support for a DREAM Act-like program in Texas. Perry and Romney battled back and forth on their job creation record, or lack thereof, with neither gaining the upper hand in my opinion.
I don’t know if I would call Romney the winner, but between the likely GOP nominees, he may have had the least bad night. Perry got attacked from the right on some of his decisions as governor, which I didn’t see coming. Huntsman and Santorum may be fighting for a spot in the winner’s administration. Huntsman is probably the most disappointing for me, because I like him so much on paper. Bachmann I can’t see winning the nomination, and I don’t see anyone pulling a McCain and bringing her along as a running mate. Ron Paul will never go away, but Ron Paul won’t win. A lot of people like to talk tough, but htey aren’t really libertarians. Herman Cain doesn’t have the political bona fides to pull this out. That’s his selling point, but it’s more of a weakness. I would also be surprised to see the GOP nominate a black man as it’s standard bearer at this point in time. Newt Gingrich isn’t going to get past the fact that he left two wives for other women, with one wife suffering from cancer. If his personal life weren’t such an albatross hanging from his neck, he might have had a chance with a country looking for someone with a plan to get us all out of the doldrums.