Yes, that’s true, but I was being generous to the people who use such tactics.

Using the “Raise your hand if …” methodology, people could easily label me everything from a left wing radical to a Christian conservative, but the answers would truly be grounded in respect for federalism, limited government and rule of law.

I caught parts and yes, Wolf Blitzer did ask candidates to raise hands on at least one question. And he walked the line for a yes and no on “would you pardon Scooter Libby”.

I like McCain and I think he did quite well, but he didn’t “win” the debate. The best three, in order are:

1. Huckabee
2. Hunter
3. Rudy (tie)
4. McCain (tie)

But, then again, that is only my opinion. The real winner will be determined by whoever gets a bump in the polls in the days ahead.

Here is my ranking of the candidates performances:

1. Rudy–held firm; still have some difficulty on his abortion stance and some social issues, but when looking at the Democratic opposition, I have to support Rudy.

2. Mike Huckabee–I hope that he can gain some traction; he speaks with a positive, conservative tone and it would be good to see a debate with fewer candiates, but including him.

3. John McCain–I am tired of McCain, but he appeared Presidential tonight at times and is going to be a factor in NH especially.

4. Mitt Romney–smooth, but still not totally believable; would like to have a debate where he speaks for 3 minutes from the heart about why he wants to be President.

Now we’re getting into the lower tier:

5. Tommy Thompson–FINALLY a question about his strong suit–health care; Tommy is very bright and likeable, and can speak in depth on many issues–but he won’t gain enough traction to be a serious contender; Back when debates were more about substance than soundbytes, he may have had a shot.

6. Duncan Hunter–of the 3 Congressmen, he was the most eloquent and articulate. Could gain some traction on the immigration issue;

7. Sam Brownback–a real loser tonight; it is between Brownback and Huckabee to gain support among the conservatives of the party and Huckabee cleaned Brownback’s clock badly and has so for all 3 debates.

8. Jim Gilmore–I don’t remember a single line of his from the debate–but in the SC debate, he was too negative.

9. Tom Tancredo–will strike a chord with a few over immigration, the media has done enough to make attacks at President Bush.

10. Ron Paul–does not belong in the debate–he was on the attack-end of the focal point of the SC debate but was irrelevant tonight.

Finally, Fred Thompson–on Hannity and Colmes–it will definitely be interesting to see him on the debate floor; I don’t think its a as much of a slam dunk that the conservative GOP base will flock to him as it seemed 2-3 months ago.

In the end, maybe 5% of the electorate is paying attention to this–so we have a long way to go.

I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, and I reserved judgment until I was done reading it, but now I’m sure it’s a bad bill. There are just too many loopholes, and it will be a major expansion of the government. I can’t support it.

In my opinion, having read the bill and most amendments, doing nothing for the now and something better later is preferable to passing this one as it stands.

I have not read the bill, but I did several break downs of the main points in it and a detailed comparison of this bill with the 1986 bill.

Yes, there are several polls that show McCain not winning, but you have to look at the larger trends.

McCain clearly won this debate HANDS DOWN. Why? Because he’s the only candidate who’s willing to do the hard things to lead America, will put an end to wasteful spending, and because he’s the only consistent conservative in the race.

This was my first long look at Romney and I thought he was, as Lewis Grizzard said about Bill Clinton, slicker than a whole bucket of eels.

For me, the highlight was the lightning striking over and over as Giuliani talked about abortion and Romney and McCain slowly backing away from him.