Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Frank Rich of the Chicago Tribune says it is "hard to tell" who won the Republican presidential debate Tuesday night in New Hampshire, and recaps the highlights.

Strong performances were put in from the three leading candidates--former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But not just by them. Many of the other candidates who really aren't given much of chance for the nomination also did well at points.

He's got the low-lights too.

John Gizzi at Human Events writes that, "there were few memorable scenes and certainly no defining moments" in the debate. His recap includes some humor from Mike Huckabee, and a discussion of why CNN spent most of the debate talking to the three frontrunners, which includes an interesting observation from the post-debate "spin room."

Former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee, who appears to draw larger crowds of reporters around him at each post-debate conclave, seconded Weber.  In his words, "Three candidates dominated the time format.  We heard a lot about evolution and Iraq, but not about high gas prices and why two kids ever sixty seconds are dropping out of high school." 

"The network [CNN] did favor the three front-runners," echoed former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.  Like Huckabee, Gilmore told me that "central issues such as health care, on which I have definite views" were not addressed.

(When I shared these criticisms with moderator Wolf Blitzer after the debate and resultant "spin-doctoring," the veteran CNN reporter told me: "Look, we tried to spread out the questions evenly among all the candidates but the fact is that the public is most interested in the three front-running contenders.)

Blitzer doesn't seem to realize that part of the reason the public is most interested in the three front-runners is CNN ignores the other seven candidates in the field.